Two "Out and About" exhibitions from Street Level Photoworks. The work by MacLean seeks to capture the loneliness of life within the realms of a busy city centre. It is showing alongside Hugh Hood's photography of the streets of Glasgow.
Donald John MacLean used a Holga 120 camera and black and white film, and the starkness of the images are challenging and inventive - the subjects appear ghost like, lost within the busy realms of the city where people appear like strangers to one another.
The works are from the larger project 'The Truth - Even if it Didn't Happen' and MacLean says 'I wanted the viewer to feel and see the sense of doubt, pain and anguish that are visible on the streets... I wanted to question the belief that street photography should be well composed, properly lit and in sharp focus'.
MacLean graduated from UWS with first class honours in 2013. He is a member of The Forgotten Collective, whose recent exhibitions include 'Art on the Hill' (the Church on the Hill, Glasgow), '2014 Frames' (CCA and Street Level, 2014), 'The Forgotten Collective V2' (Bar 10, Glasgow), as well as shows at Veneer Gallery and DNA Gallery. Other exhibitions include 'The Paisley People's Archive' (John Muir House, Paisley), and 'Govanhill - The Place of Many Faces' (Govanhill Baths, Glasgow).
Hugh Hood attended Glasgow College of Printing and around 1972 he bought his first Creative Camera magazine and was influenced by images by Lee Friedlander and Robert Frank.
It inspired him to photograph the streets of Glasgow, which are captured in this body of work from the period 1974-1978, a unique period in Glasgow's social and architectural history.