Last week we went to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to catch the exhibition Alfred Buckham, Daredevil Photographer. It’s fantastic. The images are breathtaking.

You’ll need to be quick to see it, though. It’s only on till 19th April.

Buckham’s career started in the RFC (later the RAF) in the Great War. He took his photographs from an open cockpit, leaning out of the aircraft with his leg strapped to the seat as his only safety concession. After the war he began taking photographs of British scenes, images which lent a new perspective to otherwise familar places. He later made a trip to South America.

One of his most famous pictures is of Edinburgh. Unfortunately my photo is marred by the reflection of a blue light:-

This is not simply photography. It’s Art. His final images were carefully created by layering of negatives. Hre are the three he combined for that Edinburgh shot. Again, sorry for the blue lines:-

This is the original Edinburgh photo unenhanced. Not anything like as dramatic:-

I’m a sucker for airships so these photos of R101 and R100 delighted me:-

More than a hint of Art Deco style here. The flats are on Falcon Road West:-

Corner of Falcon Road West and Falcon Road:-

Looking up Falcon Road:-

There are similar flats on Falcon Avenue.

Bath in Somerset was our main destination for our trip down south last year. Its architecture is mainly Georgian and reminded me a lot of Edinburgh.

This is Old Pulteney Street:-

To get to there from the city centre you must cross Old Pulteney Bridge:-

Though Bath’s most famous Georgian feature is the Royal Crescent (stitch of two photos):-

I must say that area of grass in front of the Crescent looked rather scruffy and unkempt.

Gable end of The Crescent:-

I’ve been to the City Art Centre, Edinburgh again. They have a retrospective exhibition of the works of Adam Bruce Thomson, of whom I admit that until the exhibition I had never heard.

The Exhibition’s title, The Quiet Path, perhaps explains that a bit. He seems to have been an unassuming man.

He was a very good painter but I was particularly taken by his drawings made during the First World War.

Zeppelin on the Ground:

Making Pontoon Bridge:

Royal Engineers Building a Bridge Near Mons:

Other drawings included Colinton:-

And, Loch Carron: Passing Storm:-

Bringing in the Hay is more colourful:

As is New Galloway:

There were some paintings of Edinburgh scenes.

North Bridge and Salisbury Crags:

The Old Dean Bridge:

And  scenes from elsewhere.

Stooks, East Lothian:

From my bedroom window:

Towards Mull:

Tréboul Harbour, Brittany:

The exhibition is on till the 6th of October.

More of Thomson’s art can be seen here.

This block of flats is on Alexander Drive. Below is a stitch of two photos:-

Detail of taller portion. The windows have been modernised:-

Reverse view, from the car park of Wickes in Stevenson Road:-

This is in the background of my post from three days ago. It’s on the corner of Gorgie Road and Alexander Drive and used to be Poole’s Roxy Cinema. Only the facade of the cinema remains.:-

It’s glorious though:-

Detail in Alexander Drive. From the website linked to above this is a later addition, possibly from when the building was turned over to shops and flats:-

This one is on the corner of Gorgie Road and Westfield Road:-

Facade:-

Ironwork railings on balcony:-

Central Detail:-

The current Exhibition at Modern One, Edinburgh, is Tracing Time by the Korean artist Do Ho Suh, of whom I hadn’t heard until the exhibition came on. It ws quite interesting, though some of the exhibits were a bit of a miss rather than a hit.

The outline of this reminded me of the shape of the Korean peninsula:-

A fairly crude drawing of an odd subject:-

Circles or swirls feature in a lot of the exhibits:-

A somewhat scatological drawing:-

This seems to be just a shape:-

Houses, too, are a feature:-

This walk-thorough installation recreates the entrances to several of the homes in which the artist has lived:-

The Exhibition is on till Sep 1st.

This exhibition, exploring 250 years of Scottish landscape is on until the 2nd of June 2024 at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. We visited in mid February.

These four are a sample of what you can see.

Threatening Storm by William Gillies:-

A Late Snowfall, Galloway, by Charles Oppenheimer:-

A corrie in Argyllshire, by James Lawton Wingate:-

A street in Temple by William Gillies:-

Walking further round Dean Cemetery I found this monument to John Irving, Lieutenant on HMS Terror, one of only two men the remains of whose bodies were returned to the UK from the Franklin Expedition:-

Close-up:-