April 2026
Art & Design
Central Library
George IV Bridge | Edinburgh | EH1
What is it to be human? Since Narcissus gazed into a pool of water, Butades daughter traced the shadow of her lover on the wall, even back to the prehistoric hands on the walls of the Spanish caves of Maltravieso, people have been documenting their existence.
I was there.
I saw this.
I touched this.
Remember my actions when I have gone.
Photography provides a mechanism by which these moments of self can be recorded. Photograms directly capture the shadow of the body. Auto-imagery is made possible by the photo booth and the timer switch - cutting out the middleman - giving control to the subject to make their identity visible.
We are so tuned into recognising people that our pareidolia finds the forms of faces in clouds and architecture. Metonymy allows us to evoke the equivalents of our bodies in things like machines and nature. We project ourselves into featureless models, filling the blank plastic with society's dreams.
As we conjure these images of ourselves, we seek recognition of our formed identities, remembrance of our lives. Modern autonomous surveillance sees us at all times, knowing us better than we care to think; our faces uniquely identifying us, allowing unseen observers to trace our activities. Biometrics link to our virtual selves, documenting and recording not just our appearance but our actions, preferences and biases - the actual and the avatar.
The likeness room contains many versions of our selves - portraits, equivalents, mirages, projections, systems - each casting shadows and reflections to be fixed in time by photography.
Edinburgh LoFi is a Traditional, Alternative and Lomographic photography collective that has been running for 17 years. Our twice-monthly meetings are open to all - one online and one (or more!) in person for photochat, photowalks and workshops. All welcome, please look at our website or email info@edinburghlofi.com to find out more.
PV on the 7th of April from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. All welcome.
Worldwide Pinhole Day photowalk in Falkirk, 11am Sunday 26th April. All welcome. Email info@edinburghlofi.com for more details.
Our next exhibition will be Winter 2026 - Film Soups ;) Email to find out how to submit works.
Scroll down to see each person's work.
Click the person's name below to find out more about them
Alan Borthwick Sheila Borthwick Olive Dean Russell Jones Graeme Lyall Gregg McNeill Ali Millar David Mitchell Peter Murray Jenni O'Sullivan Graeme Pow Elaine Robson Judith Rowan Mary Gordon
Venetian alleys, dubious parts of Dundee and London market streets provide a selection of disinterested models and un-looking bystanders.
To the fragile and fleeting the bloom of life.
" Hats Off "
My choice of hats demonstrates not vanity or identity as such,( well not much ) but practicality, considering our weather. I don't change my own identity when wearing them of course, even though their appearance might be associated with stereotypes. Nevertheless, I have given them appropriate labels for exhibition purposes, and for fun. (Presented as a parody of a miliners' shop!)
A cyanotype print on Japanese paper. A digital negative was used. The image was first made on 35mm film using a “Uboot Action Sampler” camera which has 4 lenses, and the 4 images are rapidly taken in succession.
NFS
Untitled (Measure)
No camera was involved. This photogram was made with pairs of compasses laid directly on silver gelatine paper in the darkroom, light provided by an enlarger. Then developed and fixed.
Untitled (Pillar)
Photographed on 35mm film. The lith print enlargement was made on silver gelatine paper. A lith print is a black and white photographic print, overexposed and developed in diluted lithographic chemicals, producing high contrast, soft grain, and unique warm tones.
NFS
Faces In A Crowd
Portraits Taken with the Polaroid MiniPortrait Passport Camera on Silver Gelatine Paper, Toned and Stained
Every day I see an immeasurable number of people.
On the street. In a coffee shop. On the train or bus.
Some I will see only once, some I will see several times.
Where do these people go in my brain when they are gone?
Somewhere in the very back of my mind, through the double door, down the hall, 2 rights and a left, through the small blue door, under the bed is an old shoe box containing the images of everyone I have ever seen.
Some of these faces are very familiar and I know them well.
So many of these faces are strangers to me…
NFS
I have used the theme of Camera Effigy to explore and develop my photography using my two of my favourite photography techniques - cyanotype and Polaroid. I used the theme loosely one image is based on my hand the others are from one film roll - taken of me and things that are importantly to me. The film was taken earlier this year.
The other images are cyanotype of negatives and a couple of images from one film role taken earlier this year.
Ferns in Blue
A cyanotype image on Kraft card, using a digital negative from and original film shot
£20
A random life (vertical negatives )
A cyanotype image using a negative strip, 2 of the images have been toned using black tea.
£40
Negative to positive (random negatives)
A cyanotype image using negative strips on Kraft card
£40
Reflection
A cyanotype of me in the mirror on Kraft card, using a digital negative from an original film shot.
£20
The Polaroid image is 4 deconstructed Polaroids and a Polaroid of the original image. This is one of my favourite images.
Me, Sort Of
Polaroid of my hand created in the darkroom
£30
?Hand.
4 deconstructed Polaroids
NFS
These images were made from medium format negatives as contact prints where photo paper is exposed to light with the negative pressed on top. Before enlargers existed photographers would make 1:1 contact prints from their negatives using special frames. These portraits are mounted in contact frames from the 1920’s.
Hasselblad 501CM with 80mm on Ilford Multigrade.
NFS
Meta Morphosis
Exploring the use of masks to represent the way in which social media is becoming an increasingly algorithm governed space, where people hide behind the mask of anonymity, and misinformation and Ai generated content take precedence over human individuality and creativity.
NFS
Hand in blue I, II, III, IV
I chose to make images of hands as I feel they are an important part of a person's identity. For thousands of years, people have believed that a person's character and life events are encoded in the lines on their palms. More recently, people's unique fingerprints have been used for identification and security.
These images are cyanotype photograms, created by laying objects on paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals, which is then exposed to ultraviolet light. The photochemical process produces rich tones of Prussian blue.
NFS
These photographs are self-portraits of a sort, though not of the photographer. Each image shows the camera itself, reflected in a mirror while it quietly makes the photograph. A camera selfie, if you like.
The cameras are simple pinhole constructions - light-tight containers with a tiny hole instead of a lens. They favour patience over precision. Exposures can last for hours, framing is approximate, and the images tend to arrive with a softness that feels closer to memory than measurement.
For the exhibition theme, Camera Effigy, the cameras briefly step out from behind the photograph and appear within it. Instead of being invisible tools, they become the subject. Small, slightly awkward effigies caught in the act of observing.
The titles are simply the exposure times in seconds: 113, 3593, 5399 and 7193. As it happens, each of those numbers is prime. They cannot be divided, which feels appropriate for a single uninterrupted stretch of light and time.
In the end, the cameras have made portraits of themselves.
Find Me
A grid of cyanotype eyes
including those of the photographer - will you recognise them? The biometrics will.
See Me
Polaroids
Pareidolia the phenomenon of faces seen in other things.
POA
High Five
Cyanotype hands
ID therefore IAM.
NFS
Photographer / Film Maker / Creativity Facilitator / Scottish Political Activist
and
a founding member of Edinburgh LoFi.
She will be missed and remembered by us all.
It is thanks to her legacy that the group all met at Stills to create a series of self portraits in their photobooth .
