IMAGES taken in the 1960s by a photographer dubbed “the father of modern Scottish photography” are to feature in an exhibition marking Dunfermline’s newly acquired city status.
Some 47 black and white pictures snapped by Joseph McKenzie, who trained as a photographer while in the RAF, will go on show at Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries next month.
McKenzie, who died in 2015, aged 86, became a prolific photographer through the 1960s, documenting post-war Scotland at a time of momentous change.
All the photos in the exhibition, titled Dunfermline And Its People, which was originally shown in nearby Pittencrieff House Museum in 1968, were taken during 1967 and 68 – an eventful time period for the former Royal Burgh.
In 1967, Dunfermline’s 100-year-old Castleblair Works, built to weave linen before becoming a silk mill, closed and was a sign of the town’s move away from textiles production.
To the south of Dunfermline, an estimated 1000 families were settling into the recently completed Pitcorthie housing estate, a key part of the town’s expansion following the opening of the Forth Road Bridge in October 1964.
In 1968, Dunfermline Athletic returned from Hampden Park after securing victory in the Scottish Cup final and a young upcoming folk singer, Barbara Dickson, took the plunge to become a professional musician.
Dunfermline is one of eight places to have won city status through a competition as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The King conferred city status on the town after carrying out his first official visit as monarch earlier this month.
After serving as a photographer in the RAF, McKenzie taught photography full-time at St Martins School of Art in London and then at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.
He was elected as an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society in 1954.
McKenzie’s work was held in public and private collections including those of the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the McManus Art Gallery and Museum in Dundee.
His Glasgow Gorbals Children Exhibition was shown in Edinburgh, Dundee and Dunfermline in 1965, and in 1966 he followed this up with Dundee – A City in Transition to commemorate the opening of the Tay Road Bridge.
