the 4 pegs

This November, the Art & Design Library will host an exhibition of 97 photographs by members of the Edinburgh Photographic Society. The show spans every genre of the medium — landscape, portrait, street, abstract, and wildlife — and showcases photographers stretching their craft to capture the world in ways that surprise, challenge, and inspire.

Seeing the Familiar Anew

The first thing visitors will notice is the diversity of approach. From quiet studies of Scottish wildlife to bold architectural geometries, each photograph offers a distinct voice. Collectively, they demonstrate how the language of photography continues to evolve within the Society’s community.

Ian Sommerville’s “Seashore” series turns the meeting of sea and land into a meditation on pattern and detail — kelp, rockface, and water becoming abstract compositions of tone and texture.

Nancy Conley Pinkerton’s “Tattooed with Lights” transforms the urban night into something almost painterly, the glow of artificial light becoming a new kind of brushstroke across the city.

Elsewhere, Douglas Richardson’s “Working Hands” celebrates people coming together, its focus on gesture and grit reminding viewers that art often begins with touch.

Stretching Technique and Imagination

Some of the most striking works in the show come from photographers who use technique to transcend realism — not simply recording what is seen, but transforming it.

Karen Berry’s “Pisaura Mirabilis with Egg Sac” demonstrates exquisite macro photography: every hair on the spider body is visible. Through this magnified intimacy, Berry reveals beauty in a subject many might overlook. Her “Saltwater Crocodile”, by contrast, brings attention to latent power by capturing a crocodile lying in the mud.

In Jan Jerome’s “Starling Gang,” personality is created by emphasising the character of each bird on the wire. The  boundary between photograph and artwork intentionally blurred. Jerome’s “The Lonely Skier” and “Winter Tree” continue that exploration of solitude and contrast, using negative space as eloquently as light.

David Buchanan’s landscapes — from “The Arran Mountains” to “Lammermuir Muirburn” — expand this dialogue between photography and painting. His use of colour and contrast turns ridgelines into sculptural forms, while his “Seal Colony, Lindisfarne” shot from the air, adds a living dimension.

These works exemplify how EPS members are refining traditional genres, layering technique with emotion and imagination.

Light as Storyteller

Photography is, above all, the art of light — and nowhere is that more evident than in this exhibition.

Anna Onadeko’s “Pyramide du Louvre at Sunset” captures the architecture’s crystalline form bathed in soft pink light, merging modern design with the timelessness of dusk. In “Crown Splash”, she turns a moment of impact — a droplet striking liquid — into pure sculpture. It’s an image that freezes both time and motion, its luminous crown suspended midair.

Natasha Williams’ “Botanical Light Play” and “Condensation” explore a different kind of illumination — the subtle interplay between translucence and shadow. Her work feels almost scientific in its precision yet poetic in its composition, inviting viewers to look closer at how light behaves on surfaces we often ignore.

In Samuel Fraser’s “Autumnal Whispers on the Burn” and “Woodland Waters of Roslin Glen”, light and water merge to create movement and reflection — a conversation between seasons. These pieces remind us that seeing is not passive; it’s participatory. The viewer, like the photographer, must adjust their eyes to the quiet shimmer of change.

Wild Scotland, Changing Light

Scotland’s natural world features prominently in the exhibition, yet the tone is far from sentimental. Many of these works carry a quiet awareness that the creatures and climates they depict are under threat.

Linda Cooper’s “Arctic Fox,” “An Owl in Winter,” and “Harvest Mouse” series blend technical mastery with empathy. The fox’s fur gleams against snow that seems to melt into the frame; the owl, caught mid-turn, radiates both dignity and fragility. These are not just images of animals, but portraits of adaptation and endurance — and perhaps, of impermanence.

Lesley Simpson’s “Gannets Pair Bonding” and “Gannets Mating Behaviour” offer intimate glimpses of connection in the wild, their feathered subjects intertwined with each other. Simpson’s attention to color, draws the eye to the gannets and makes them appear painted.

Even in miniature, the same reverence for nature holds true. Berry’s macro spider, Cooper’s mouse, and Jan Jerome’s “Young Grouse” all share a fascination with the thought provoking experience of youth, discovery, and joy in the moments that capture our heart. The photographers’ patience is visible in every frame.

Urban and Human Rhythms

Alongside wilderness and abstraction, First Impressions captures the rhythm of modern life — from architecture to portraiture to sport.

Derek Robertson’s “Concrete Spiral (Modern Architecture)” and “Red Line” turn structural design into visual music, transforming buildings into compositions of motion and colour. Phil Gilmour’s “Queue at the Cinema” captures anticipation in everyday routine — the posters at the art deco cinema tells it own story.

Mhairi Chambers’ “Quarterback Races Clear” and “Alex Stewart, Scotland Flanker” channel athletic motion with journalistic immediacy, while Anne Conrad’s “Silent Disco” distills an energy into a single frame of joyful contradiction — movement without sound.

And then there are the quiet portraits, like Douglas Richardson’s “I’m Watching”, which turns street art into narrative. In each of these works, photographers engage with human behaviour as both observer and participant.

Craft, Curiosity, and Connection

Across all 97 works, what emerges is not just the breadth of subject matter, but the depth of intention. Whether capturing a spider carrying its young, a murmuration, or a face in passing, these photographers are united by curiosity — the willingness to look longer and see differently.

Many employ advanced techniques — focus stacking, high-speed flash, digital blending — yet the technology never overshadows the artistry. Instead, it amplifies the photographers’ ability to translate emotion into image. Their shared pursuit is not perfection but perception: finding meaning in detail and wonder in repetition.

An Invitation to See Anew

Visitors are encouraged to move slowly, to let each image unfold at its own pace. The exhibition celebrates not just what the camera captures, but what the photographer — and the viewer — bring to the moment of seeing.

From the shimmer of light on glass to the whisper of a Puffin's feathers in flight, the photographs at the Art & Design Library remind us that the world remains endlessly worth observing.