Current Projects
I will be onboard the Hebridean Princess in November 2012 on the "South from Oban" cruise..
I am also scheduled to sail with the National Trust for Scotland in the summer of 2012 during the ""Islands of Inspiration" voyage - taking the Destination St Kilda lecture to St Kilda.
Images from the slides will also form part of the new Scottish Photography Exhibition to be staged at the National Gallery of Scotland in Queen Street, Edinburgh. Opening in late November 2011, the gallery is hosting the exhibition to celebrate it's re-opening after a complete refurbishment.
I recently spend a day filiming with Paul Murton and TimeLine Films. Paul was shooting an episode for the second series of "Grand Tours of Scotland". We talked about the use of the magic lantern to encourage tourism in Victorian Scotland and looked at some of the slides used at that time. The series will be broadcast on BBC1 Scotland in November 2011 and is available on iPlayer.
I recently spent the afternoon at Sloans in Glasgow, filming a sequence with the BBC. Sloans is the oldest bar and restaurant in Glasgow and we were filming a magic lantern slide sequence for an upcoming documentary on "The Story of British Pathe". Should be broadcast on the BBC around April/May 2011.
In July I did a live radio interview with BBC Good Morning Scotland to discuss my new book. The same day I did a short piece with the BBC Reporting Scotland News bulletin discussing the book. The broadcast included footage of my lantern and some of the slides.
Also in July I did a short interview with Scottish Television for their evening News Bulletin, discussing the book.
My book and slides were the highlight of a Cafe Scientifique discussion forum at Waterstones book shop, Union Bridge, Aberdeen, on Wednesday 14th July.
I presented "Geared to the Stars - Victorian Astronomy through the Magic Lantern" as part of the ‘'Professor Pepper’s Ghost’ - Six MORE evenings of optical magic at the old Polytechnic' lecture series at the University of Westminster in Regents Street, London. In March 2010 I lectured for Hebridean Island Cruises onboard their ship "The Hebridean Princess", presenting "Down the Clyde to Argyll" plus "Geared to the Stars".
I recently worked with the BBC, providing images for programs in their "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "The Scottish Clans" series. I have supplied a large range of historical images to the The Highland Council's bilingual web site, Am Baile.
Several of my images appear in Martin Padget's new book "Photographers of the Western Isles". Published by Birlinn, the ISBN is 978-0859767040
Recent articles include: "Focus on the Clyde", for the "The Hebridean Times", the customer magazine of the Hebridean Princess cruise ship. Also, 'Imaging a Continent: the George Washington Wilson & Co's Lantern Slides of Australia'. Published in Early Popular Visual Culture (Routledge) in November 2009, it was awarded 2nd place in the 2008-2009 Projection Box Essay Awards. Published in Australia was 'Imaging The Past', Outback Magazine, RM Williams. You can purchase copies of the published images from www.priscus.co.uk. Details of the magazine can be found at Outback Magazine.
I provide expertise on business management and professional presentations as a Royal Society of Edinburgh Mentor to Enterprise Fellows.
I have an ongoing responsibility to develop the web site for The Magic Lantern Society (www.magiclantern.org.uk) and The Stirling Astronomical Society (www.stirlingastronomicalsociety.org.uk). I offer Victorian photographs of Scotland, England and Australia through my web site Priscus (www.priscus.co.uk).