Joseph McKenzie (19 March 1929 – 5 July 2015) was a Scottish photographer known as the "father of modern Scottish photography". He is known for his black and white images of post-war Scottish lives amid urban decay and redevelopment. McKenzie was born in London in 1929. During the Second World War and afterwards until 1952, McKenzie served as a photographer in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. Then from 1952 until 1954, he studied photography at the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

. He initially taught photography at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

, and was later appointed as lecturer in photography at

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) is part of the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. It is ranked as one of the top schools of art and design in the United Kingdom. History Attempts were made to establish an art schoo ...

in Dundee where he worked until his retirement in 1986. His students nicknamed him the 'one shot wonder.' For his ability to capture the desired shot only using one frame. Joseph developed and printed all his own work. He was very influential in developing documentary photography as an art in Scotland, and notably helping establish the careers of

Calum Colvin Calum Colvin (born Glasgow, 1961) is a Scottish artist whose work combines photography, painting, and installation, and often deals with issues of Scottish identity and culture and with the history of art. He has had solo exhibitions at the Scott ...

and Albert Watson. During the 1960s McKenzie's photography was exhibited widely throughout Scotland, with notably ''Glasgow Gorbals Children'' (1965), ''Dundee - A City in Transition'' (1966), ''Dunfermline and its People'', ''Down among the Dead Men'', ''Gorbals Revisited'', and ''Caledonian Images'' (

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

, 1969). In 1970 his exhibition ''Hibernian Images'' created controversy in its depictions of the embattled lives of young people in Northern Ireland. Amid attempts to censor his work he then largely withdrew from public exhibitions. A retrospective of his work was held at the Third Eye Centre in August 1987, and published in ''Pages of Experience; photographs 1947-1987''. Another collection, ''Gorbals children: A Study in Photographs'' was published in 1990. In 1997 an exhibition, ''Witness to Mortality: Photographs by Joseph McKenzie'' was held at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow.

References

External links

Joseph McKenzie homepageNational Galleries of Scotland
1929 births 2015 deaths Academics of Saint Martin's School of Art Academics of the University of Dundee Alumni of the London College of Printing English people of Scottish descent Military personnel from London Photographers from London Scottish photographers {{UK-photographer-stub