I studied photography in my late teens to early twenties. When I finished up at college, I didn’t pick up a camera again for about 10 years. I just didn’t enjoy taking pictures anymore, but I kept working in photography as a picture editor on a national newspaper which I still do and still enjoy.
I gradually started to take pictures again, but it was when I was working from home during lockdown and going out for daily walks that I started taking more and more pictures on my phone and got more and more into it.
I decided to do something to challenge myself - something completely out of my comfort zone and that was approaching people in the street and asking if I could take their portrait. I had bought a new camera and learning how to use it was another part of the challenge to myself.
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What essentially started as something to get me out the door on my days off, to do something new and different on my own doorstep, exploring the area to see what was going on around me led to me discovering all these amazing things that happen in Maryhill - like the local fencing school and the archery club - that that I never even realised were there and that I’m sure a lot of people don’t know they’re there.
I wanted to document the positive things that were going on in this community, through the people who live work and visit Maryhill. Taking these photographs was a positive thing in my life and I wanted to reflect that in the portraits.
I started in January, and so far, I’ve taken 80-100 portraits. 60 of them are featured in an exhibition that’s running in Maryhill for the next 3 months - the title of the project and exhibition comes from me being a Patrick Thistle fan - we sing a song called, ‘Maryhill Is Wonderful’, and I thought it was the perfect for this.
I’ve just started volunteering at G20 Works in Maryhill to help teach photography to young people in the area, to give them skills and resources and that will also tie with other initiatives that are going to be happening here, and that means I’ll be in the area a lot to let me continue the project.
‘Maryhill Is Wonderful’ includes people from all backgrounds, and ages. I wanted to encompass people from all walks of life across the whole area. It’s been such an interesting thing to do. You don’t really know what’s going on in other people’s lives until you are curious enough to find out, and just by stopping them and having a chat and taking their picture, which is a very personal thing to ask someone to do, made a difference to my day and theirs.
' Maryhill Is Wonderful', a photographic exhibition of the people of Maryhill by Campbell Ramage, Maryhill Burgh Halls, 10-24 Gairbraid Avenue, G20 8YE, Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm, until 3 March 2023, entry is free. Follow the entire project @maryhilliswonderful2022 on Instagram
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