The Year in Photos: 2023

Portraits, Street Photography, Art World, and Architecture

The end-of-year reviews get earlier every year. Some even start their round-ups at the beginning of November. While there is a month to go before the end of 2023, I still reckon December is the best time to reflect on what happened in this year before thoughts of the next come to dominate. This week I want to share my year in photos.

I took a lot of photos this year. Thousands. From these, I selected a hundred that I liked and whittled these down to fifty-two. The criteria for what photos make the cut are simple: they have to either grab me or feel significant in some way. To aid the reader, I have grouped them into four slightly overlapping groups: Street Photography, Portraits, Art World, and Architecture.

Street Photography

I love the randomness of street photography, particularly in Glasgow where there is always something interesting going on. Street photography forces you to be alert to the world. It’s almost a form of mindfulness meditation.

Strange green smoke emanates from a bar. The hooded youth gather to observe.

More smoke. This time a precautionary automated fire safety measure in an empty supermarket.

More hoods, more wildlife.

Camouflaged woman on the streets, from my attempt at a Photo Essay in Porto.

The loneliness of the smoker, forced out on the balcony.

As parks stop cutting the grass to encourage insects, the hammock comes into its own as a way of relaxing.

How it started. How it’s going.

Julia Bauer talks with Ellie Harrison in a cafe after Ellie’s birthday Parkrun.

Steam auto-cleaning the innards of a coffee machine.

Yotam, Sandra, Kia and Laura embrace after the Yoga Retreat.

A walk along the river.

Protestors against COVID lockdowns have seamlessly turned into protestors against 15-minute cities and low-emission zones.

Taking a moment amidst the noise of the counter-protest to Posie Parker.

Posie Parker and supporters in George Square.

Even zombies need to check their messages on the Subway.

Pink stetson salesman

Different tables, same hat. At the CCA before the cafe closed due to strike action.

Parkrunners in the snow. This was taken yesterday!

Portraits

This year I have been trying to get more confident in asking people if I can take their picture. I want to create an honest connection with a person and learn how to put them at ease. My inspiration for this is the brilliant Simon Murphy, who gave me a brief masterclass in portrait photography after I interviewed him.

Simon Murphy after I spoke with him ahead of his blockbuster exhibition at Street Level Photoworks.

Teo Modoi at the GSA degree show after we had discussed Existential Productivity

A self-portrait with a plant pot on my head, shortly before I cut my hair.

Self-portrait at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, possibly suffering from Stendhal’s Syndrome.

A wordless encounter with a man who wanted to surround himself with pigeons.

Alongside the BBC, STV, and Channel 4, I was invited along to the press launch for Rachel Maclean’s Mimi store in Ayr. I mixed with the newspaper photographers and didn’t totally embarrass myself with this portrait of Maclean.

Camilla Grudova disliked these Laura Ford sculptures but gamely posed with them for me at Jupiter Artland.

Chris Kohler and Caspar Wilson indulging my documentation in the pub.

It was a pleasure to catch up with the RD Laing scholar, Adrian Chapman, at the Mary Barnes exhibition at the University of Glasgow.

An unusual photoshoot with FK Alexander in the toilets at a pub in Edinburgh.

Alasdair Dimmick looking regal at his second solo show.

Art World

What I love about the art world is that it is full of people who are willing to create something where once there was nothing. If you think art is so bad, what would you put on the wall if someone asked you to fill a space in an exhibition?

Banksymania took over Glasgow this year. Phones were banned in the exhibition but there was a room just before you left where you could try your hand at graffiti.

Featuring in the year in photos for the second time running is Elina Bry, whose performance at Market Gallery was a lot of fun, particularly when it engaged the locals.

Performance art legend, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and my wife, Laura Gonzalez, hug after his lecture at the Royal Conservatoire.

A tour around the Mitchell Library as part of the Common Guild’s series of exhibitions and works in libraries.

Nicola Atkinson, aka Beautiful Materials, shows off her new scarves.

Performance artists Esyllt Lewis and Emma Lewis-Jones improvise with a strip of cardboard.

Althea Young shares The Dreaming, a Work in Progress.

Artist, gallerist and academic, Neil Clement (right), answers queries about Jacob Kassay’s work at Ivory Tars.

The artist at work. Emily Furneaux preparing to leave Glasgow.

Marcus Jack, Alia Syed, and Malcolm Dickson in a discussion about artists’ film and video.

The referee, Alex Warner, at a game of Three-Sided Football.

An exhausted Brett Anderson at the end of a Suede concert.

Alan Donaldson greeting Julie Laing at his show at Sogo Arts.

I need to do a series of photos only of hands. So expressive.

Architecture

The definitive Glasgow photo: looking up at a cone on the M8 at Kingston Bridge.

Pareidolia anyone?

When the art breaks the shutters.

Extremely orderly queueing to see Richard Dawson.

Cologne Cathedral at the end of the Hohenzollern Bridge

The Doulton Fountain in Glasgow Green. As mentioned in last week’s video essay.

Snow, scaffolding, and cranes. A city on the move.

The SAS have been redeployed as window cleaners.

What picturesque ruins were to the Romantics, demolition is to me.

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If you enjoyed this post, check out last year’s photos.