Home
photography
history
Eilean

Eilean

The Island Photography of Margaret Fay Shaw

by Margaret Fay Shaw

Edited by Fiona J. Mackenzie

Imprint: Birlinn

9.85 x 11.6 in, b/w halftones throughout

Hardcover
9781780275536
December 2018
In Stock

$37.95

Buy

Description
Authors
Praise

Margaret Fay Shaw took her first photographs of the Hebrides in 1924 whilst travelling through the islands by bicycle. It was her photography which first brought her to the attention of folklorist John Lorne Campbell, and after their marriage in 1935 they began their unique career together, creating the world’s finest treasury of Hebridean song, story, image and folklore.

Her collection of some 9,000 photographs and film were taken mainly on the Hebridean islands of Uist, Barra, Mingulay, Eriskay, Canna and the Irish Aran Islands, and form a key part of the magnificent Campbell collections at Canna House, where she and John made their home for 60 years. In 1981 they gifted the island of Canna and its collections to the National Trust for Scotland, who now curate the material for future generations to enjoy.

This book features over 100 of the best of Margaret Fay Shaw’s Hebridean photographs, with extended captions by Fiona J. Mackenzie and an introductory essay by the collection’s former archivist Magdalena Sagarzazu.

Margaret Fay Shaw’s life spans a century of change. Leaving home and school in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia aged 16, she crossedto Scotland to spend a year at school near Glasgow. It was there that her love for Scotland was born. After studying music in New York andParis, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in South Uist. Life on the island had changed little from previous centuries, and materialcomforts were few. But the island was rich in music and tradition, and Margaret Fay Shaw’s collection of Gaelic lore and song are amongst themost important made this century, whilst her photography evocatively captures the aura of a vanished world.

The beauty of the Hebrides and the warmth of the people and their vanished way of life are captured in 200 photographs taken over six decades from the 1920s by Margaret Fay Shaw' ~Country Life

Provides a new and vibrant addition to Margaret Faye Shaw’s work. She was a woman of so many talents that it is hard to do justice to such a range. This collection is a fine contribution to celebrating her rich life' ~Oban Times