Stephen McLaren explained

Stephen McLaren is a Scottish photographer, writer, and curator, based in Los Angeles. He has edited various photography books published by Thames & Hudson—including Street Photography Now (2010)—and produced his own, The Crash (2018). He is a co-founder member of Document Scotland. McLaren's work has been shown at FACT in Liverpool as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival and in Document Scotland group exhibitions at Impressions Gallery, Bradford and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. His work is held in the collection of the University of St Andrews.

Career

McLaren made television documentaries in Scotland and then in London, before moving to the USA and working as a photographer.^[1] In 2013 he was living in San Francisco^[1] and is now based in Los Angeles.^[2] Matt McCann wrote in The New York Times that McLaren's street photography "feels like a field guide to how normal things can be really odd, contradictory — and visually rich."

He is a co-founder member of the Document Scotland collective, founded in 2012 to make documentary photography about Scotland.^{[3] [4]}

Street Photography Now (2010), co-edited with Sophie Howarth, is a survey book of contemporary street photography, in which McLaren's photography is also included.^{[5] [6] [7]} Photographers' Sketchbooks (2014), co-edited and co-written with Bryan Formhals,^[8] gives insight into the work and methods of 50 photographers with a chapter by each of them.^[9] Magnum Streetwise (2019), edited by McLaren, contains images he drew from the Magnum Photos archive.^[10]

McLaren's book of his own street photography, The Crash (2018), documents the City of London after the financial crisis of 2007–2008, made over five years.^{[1] [11] [12]} The work was shown at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival in 2011.^[13]

Made in the run up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, McLaren's series American Always, Scottish Forever depicts Americans with Scottish ancestry attending the Highland games season in California—the athletes, musicians, artists, and visitors who hold a close affinity with Scotland.^{[14] [15]} The work was shown in a Document Scotland group exhibition at Impressions Gallery, Bradford^[15] and at Berwick Visual Arts, Berwick-upon-Tweed.^[16]

McLaren's A Sweet Forgetting was made after the Scottish National Portrait Gallery asked Document Scotland to produce an exhibition in response to the Scottish independence referendum.^[17] McLaren's series is concerned with the involvement of Scots in the sugar economy of Jamaica in the 18th and 19th centuries, built on the slave trade. In Jamaica, he made photographs about the period's genealogical legacy, about the land which had once been owned by rich Scots, and what remained of their houses. He also photographed some of the country estates, mansions and schools built throughout Scotland with wealth amassed by Scottish sugar plantation owners that enslaved Africans generated for nearly 150 years.^{[18] [19]}

Publications

Publications of McLaren's photography

• The Crash. East London Photo Stories, Book 14. London: Hoxton Mini, 2018. .^[20]

Zines of McLaren's photography

• Dookits. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 150 copies.

Publications with contributions of McLaren's photography

• Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. Edited by McLaren and Sophie Howarth.^[21] . French-language edition, translated by Berton, Gilles. Paris: Thames & Hudson, 2017. .
• Common Ground. Document Scotland, 2014. Includes two photo essays from each Document Scotland member, including McLaren, plus work by members of Welsh photography collective A Fine Beginning. With essays by Malcolm Dickson and Anne McNeill. Published to accompany an exhibition at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow.^[22]

Publications edited by McLaren

• Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. Edited by McLaren and Sophie Howarth.^[23] . French-language edition, translated by Berton, Gilles. Paris: Thames & Hudson, 2017. .
• Photographers' Sketchbooks. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2014. Co-edited and co-written by McLaren and Bryan Formhals. .^{[24] [25]}
• Family Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016. Edited by McLaren and Howarth. .
• Magnum Streetwise: the ultimate collection of street photography from Magnum Photos. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2019. . Photographs by various Magnum Photos photographers.^[10]
• Reclaim the Street: Street Photography's Moment. London: Thames & Hudson, 2023. With Matt Stuart. .

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions or exhibitions during festivals with photography by McLaren

• London Games, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK, 2011^[26]
• Moral Hazard, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK, part of Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival, 2011^[13]
• Seeing Ourselves, Fotospace Gallery, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, 2013. Work by the founding members of Document Scotland and others.^{[4] [27] [28]}
• Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK;^{[15] [29]} Granary Gallery, Berwick Visual Arts, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK, 2017.^{[16] [30]} With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's American Always, Scottish Forever. Curated by Anne McNeill.^[31]
• Common Ground: New Documentary Photography from Scotland & Wales, StreetLevel Photoworks, Glasgow, UK, 2014. With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's Scotia Nova.^[32]
• Document Scotland: The Ties that Bind, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2015/2016.^{[33] [34]} Included A Sweet Forgetting by McLaren.^[18]
• A Contested Land, Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK. With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's Edinburgh Unchained.^[35]

Exhibitions curated by McLaren

• Common Ground: New American Street Photography, New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, New Orleans, 2013;^[36] drkrm, Los Angeles, 2013.^{[37] [38]} With work by Blake Andrews, Richard Bram, Formhals, Chuck Patch and Jack Simon.
• Peripheral Vision, The Battery, San Francisco, 2015/2016. Curated by McLaren in collaboration with Thomas Moller and Matt Bernstein.^[39]

Collections

McLaren's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland: 116 works (as of September 2020)^[40] including Jamaica: A Sweet Forgetting,^[41] American Always Scottish Forever^[42] and Scotia Nova^[43]

See also

• Sophie Gerrard

External links

• • "Searing street photographs taken during the financial crisis cast a critical eye over the City of London" – photographs from The Crash at Creative Boom

Notes and References

1. News: Matt. McCann. 21 August 2020. Wading Into Weirdness on the Street. 25 March 2013. The New York Times.
2. Web site: 3 September 2020. Stephen McLaren. The Guardian.
3. News: 11 August 2018. The photography collective exploring Scotland's past and present. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/document-scotland-the-photography-collective-exploring-scotlands-past-and-present-a6678886.html . 25 May 2022 . subscription . live. Jeremy. Sutton-Hibbert. The Independent.
4. News: 11 August 2018. Document Scotland: A collective capturing a nation. The Scotsman.
5. News: Sarah. Bakewell. 2 August 2020. The ecstasy of street photography. The Guardian. 23 December 2010. 0261-3077.
6. Web site: 2 August 2020. Street photography now. BBC.
7. Web site: 2 August 2020. Photography books of the year – reviews. 12 December 2010. The Guardian.
8. Web site: Jordan G.. Teicher. 15 August 2020. A Glimpse Into the Sketchbooks of Professional Photographers. 1 February 2015. Slate Magazine.
9. Web site: 15 August 2020. Books of the year 2014: The best photography books. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/books-of-the-year-2014-the-best-photography-books-9936821.html . 25 May 2022 . subscription . live. 20 December 2014. The Independent.
10. News: 19 August 2020. Streetwise: Capturing iconic moments of daily life. BBC News. 21 October 2019. www.bbc.co.uk.
11. Web site: Aimée. McLaughlin. 18 August 2020. The Crash: A chilling look back at the global financial crisis. 20 September 2018. Creative Review.
12. Web site: Ranjit. Dhaliwal. 18 August 2020. Moral Hazard: snapping the City after the crash – audio slideshow. 30 October 2013. The Guardian.
13. Web site: 18 August 2020. Look11 International Photography Festival. www.lookphotofestival.com.
14. News: 3 September 2020. American always, Scottish forever. BBC News. 29 June 2014.
15. Web site: 19 August 2020. Aesthetica Magazine – Document Scotland, Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland, Impressions Gallery, Bradford. Aesthetica Magazine.
16. Web site: 3 September 2020. Beyond the Borders examines the Scottish identity in series of works. www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk.
17. News: 3 September 2020. In pictures: The Ties That Bind. BBC News. 20 October 2015. www.bbc.co.uk.
18. News: Fayemi. Shakur. 12 August 2018. A Sweet Forgetting: Slavery, Sugar and Scotland. The New York Times.
19. Web site: 3 September 2020. Stephen. McLaren. Jamaica – a sweet forgetting: Scotland's role in the slave trade. HeraldScotland.
20. Web site: 18 August 2020. Dystopian photos of London’s bankers in meltdown. 27 September 2018. Huck Magazine.
21. Web site: Adam. Juniper. 31 October 2019. 2 August 2020. The best books on street photography in 2020. Digital Camera World.
22. Web site: 3 September 2020. Common Ground – our new publication. Document Scotland.
23. News: Sean. O'Hagan. Sean O'Hagan (journalist). 2 August 2020. The Best Photography Books of the Year. The Guardian. 12 December 2010. 0261-3077.
24. News: 15 August 2020. The best coffee table books out now. The Telegraph. 22 July 2015. 0307-1235.
25. December 2014. Mixed Media . The RPS Journal . 154 . 753 . 15 August 2020.
26. News: 18 August 2020. Format's street photography focus. BBC News. 10 March 2011.
27. News: 11 August 2018. Seeing Ourselves – New Documentary Photography from Scotland. The List.
28. Web site: 11 August 2018. Exhibition: "Seeing Ourselves". Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research.
29. Web site: 19 August 2020. Documenting Scotland. 1 September 2014. British Journal of Photography.
30. Web site: 11 August 2018. Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland. The Maltings Theatre & Cinema.
31. News: 12 August 2018. Beautiful Photos of What May Be the World's Next National Border. The New Republic.
32. Web site: 19 August 2020. Common Ground: New Documentary Photography from Scotland & Wales. Street Level Photoworks.
33. News: 12 August 2018. Art review: Mixed messages on Scottish independence. The Scotsman.
34. News: 12 August 2018. Document Scotland: The Ties That Bind. The List. 3 September 2015.
35. Web site: 19 August 2020. Martin Parr Foundation. Martin Parr Foundation.
36. Web site: 15 August 2020. Common Ground – New Orleans Photo Alliance Takes It to the Street with five photographers. 21 February 2013. Artblog.
37. Web site: 15 August 2020. Common Ground: New American Street Photography at drkrm. 8 July 2013. lenscratch.com.
38. Web site: 15 August 2020. Common Ground: New American Street Photography. www.drkrm.com.
39. Web site: 19 August 2020. The Battery. www.thebatterysf.com.
40. Web site: 3 September 2020. Photographic collection. collections.st-andrews.ac.uk.
41. Web site: 3 September 2020. Jamaica: A Sweet Forgetting. University of St Andrews.
42. Web site: 3 September 2020. merican Always Scottish Forever. collections.st-andrews.ac.uk.
43. Web site: 3 September 2020. Scotia Nova. collections.st-andrews.ac.uk.