An exhibition of Lumen photography by Margaret Barker.
Cultural Heritage has many local names; in the Highlands and Islands, it is dualchas – a connection between people and place across time.
Lumen photography allows me to show this rich connection. Hebridean light triggers the chemical reaction between paper, native flora and images of local people involved in traditional skills. It is always a thrill to watch the results emerge in unexpected ways, connecting people and places in a riot of machair hues. Just as quickly as they appear, time dims these photographs to sepia browns reminiscent of a winter peatland.
In the same way, we sense this reassuring sepia presence of our traditional past and ancestors as we participate in our own new, colour-filled Lumen, radiating elements of our culture into the local future. Wherever we live, an encounter with cultural heritage is a living expression of what it is to be human.
*Cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants
It also includes traditions or skills to produce traditional crafts.