Edinburgh: An Architectural Portrait features
an inspiring portfolio of imagery created over a ten-year period by the
photographer and visual artist James Reid. Documenting the City of Edinburgh
using digital, analogue and polaroid formats, the book captures the city’s main
conservation areas, with an emphasis on key architects, listed buildings and
distinct aspects of the cityscape.Presented as a beautiful collection of
black-and-white images, along with a handful of colour works, the book’s
digital images are a mixture of full-frame capture and large-scale composite
pieces, along with a selection of 35mm analogue single-frame photography. These
include panoramic views as well as more intimate perspectives, made possible by
Reid’s unique access to the city’s various buildings and structures of note.The book also features essays by five
established Edinburgh-based artists – Aly Gordon (painter), Bruce Hare
(artist and architect), Marianne Magnin (artist and curator), Merlin Ramos
(painter) and Henry Stevens (artist and architect) – each of
whom offers a personally informed response to the city and how its
architecture, art and history inform, influence and impact on them.The resulting publication is a unique
visual mapping of the city’s most architecturally significant areas that will
appeal to not only architects, artists and academics, but also residence of and
visitors to one of the world’s most architecturally rich capitals of culture.