Highland shopping centre showcases Year of Coasts and Waters photography exhibition by Alexander Williamson
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ENCOUNTERS with people while out walking during the coronavirus pandemic have inspired a photographer and writer to put together an exhibition.
Year of Coasts and Waters by Alexander Williamson has opened at the community gallery in the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness.
It showcases photographs exploring how the local community’s engagement with Nairn’s natural environment helped them cope with the Covid-19 outbreak, while reflecting upon how people’s relationship to each other has changed during the global pandemic.
In January 2020, it had been Mr Williamson’s intention to document a year in Nairn, drawing inspiration from Scotland’s themed Year of Coast and Waters with the idea of capturing large public gatherings alongside quiet moments of solitude and contemplation.
But the plans were put on hold due to lockdown with people being told to stay indoors and avoid human contact as much as possible and only being permitted to venture out to buy food or to take exercise.
In the early days of lockdown, taking that permitted hour of outdoor exercise often meant going for a walk – sometimes down by the river or out along the beach – and rediscovering the natural beauty on the doorstep.
Mr Williamson said: “For me, walking and photography go hand in hand, and this project helped with my own sense of isolation.
“The portraits on display are all people I encountered on my walks, many of whom I had met for the first time.
“All were happy to talk and have their photograph taken.
“Taken from a safe distance, the portraits explore this tension between separation and closeness, the familiar and the strange.”
Although Scotland’s extended Year of Coasts and Waters has drawn to a close, his project is now complete – but he reflected that the years of coronavirus could be with us for some time.
“Even now, with many of us vaccinated, the risk from Covid-19 has not wholly gone away,” he said.
“Infection rates remain high, and for some encountering others remains a cause for concern.”
Mr Williamson hoped the project would last as a record of how people in Nairn coped with unprecedented times.
“This project looks at the resilience of a community during the global pandemic – how the people of Nairn sought comfort and distraction in the natural landscape,” he said.
“It’s also a reminder of the beautiful coast we have here in the Highlands. We are so very lucky to have it, and we need to look after it.”
