Encore + The Valleys Re-Presented /  Reviewed by Anna Falcini  for Photomonitor / 15.05.13

Alicia Bruce: Encore – Solo presentation at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

The Valleys Re-Presented – Group exhibition at Tramshed including work by Alicia Bruce

To read the full review visit: http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2013/05/alicia-bruce-encore-the-valleys-re-presented/

“The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal battle between right and wrong.”

John Muir (1838-1914) inscribed into the wall of The Scottish Parliament 

Menie Residents David & Moira Milne outside The Scottish Parliament.
14 May 2013
© Alicia Bruce
All rights reserved

Today I accompanied Menie residents David and Moira Milne to the Scottish Parliament to hand over David’s petition calling for a public inquiry into handling of the Trump resort which now has 19,178 signatures.

“We are calling on the Scottish Parliament, through the Public Petitions Committee, to urge the Scottish Government to hold a public inquiry into the way local government, Scottish Ministers and other relevant public bodies conducted themselves throughout their dealings with the Trump Organisation in relation to the Menie project.

Why is this important?

Only a full public inquiry can now get to the bottom of this story. We need to know how local and central government dealt with the Trump Organisation, what was offered by whom and when, and we need to establish why planning guidelines and environmental regulations were simply unable to protect our community and the unique environment we live in. Finally, we need to know what changes can be made so the planning system again works like it is supposed to.”

David Milne heading to Committee Room 2 at The Scottish Parliament.
14 May 2013
© Alicia Bruce
All rights reserved

“But are all these signatures local?” asked Maureen Watt SNP MSP.  It’s clear that there were a few in the room who wanted to bury their heads in the sand and leave the issue of the Trump development un-investigated.  David emphasised to the Scottish Parliament Committee the loss of the SSSI accreditation at Menie and the unknown effect this will have to the landscape.  The Milne’s, along with the rest of Menie’s residents have been applauded overseas thanks to Anthony Baxter’s documentary ‘You’ve Been Trumped’ which exposes the bully boy tactics of the Trump organisation in Scotland alongside the dignified and principled stance of the Menie residents.  This leaves me considering the other great Scots, like John Muir, & Patrick Geddes who were applauded abroad for forward thinking in terms of landscape and conservation yet it took the Scots decades too acknowledge these pioneers.  As Geddes says “Think global, act local.”

Since 2010 I have witnessed at first hand the unlawful treatment of the Menie residents, their properties, the local environment and visitors to the area who have not been invited by Mr Trump.  I have been chased and threatened by security as well as being stopped by Grampian Police for photographing Molly Forbes with her geese on her family land.

The Parliament have left the petition open allowing David Milne the opportunity to invite views from Aberdeenshire Council, Grampian Police Marine Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Moira & David Milne: Hermit Point
From series ‘Menie: a portrait of a North East coastal community in conflict’
August 2010
© Alicia Bruce
All rights reserved

I began photographing the Menie residents and conducted interviews with each resident in 2010.   Today the words from David Milne’s statement resonate.

“It was when the proposals came in to sacrifice the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) that the whole thing really kicked off for me. That was when I took a better look at what was meant to be the trade off and found there wasn’t one. After all the SSSI is a supposedly protected site meant to be retained to help keep the balance of the planet and here it was being sacrificed for unprovable economic benefit. When we looked more closely it became obvious even that was all down to a very qualified appraisal that has never yet been looked at by any independent organisation.

This was long before there was any threat against our homes. It was in March 2009 that lawyers for T3 applied for compulsory purchase over our homes and October that year that Aberdeenshire Council failed to make a decision on this subject. We have now endured two Christmases with this threat hanging over us, all five households, and our position has not changed and no substantive contact has been made by T3.

The SSSI has been dug away and no one knows what effect this will have on Forvie nature reserve further north or the wildlife that used to live in this area. The reputation of the North East of Scotland has been irreparably damaged by the cavalier and cowardly actions of a small group of politicians and self interested business people who seem to think they can do no wrong, and that the long term environmental destruction caused by this housing development is acceptable as long as they make a profit. They are wrong.

It needs to be remembered by all that we do not inherit this earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our descendants.”

David Milne, Hermit Point, 2010

David Milne: Hermit Point
From series ‘Menie: a portrait of a North East coastal community in conflict’
August 2010
© Alicia Bruce
All rights reserved

‘The Valleys Project’ was featured on Phil Coomes ‘In Pictures’ on BBC News website on Wednesday 1 May to co-incide with the opening of my two exhibitions at -Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography.

View the full post here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-22365027

A feature on ‘The Valleys Re-Presented‘ is also on BBC website  here: Cardiff tram shed converted to gallery for Diffusion festival

I will be exhibiting works made during my three month 2011 residency in Blaenavon in two exhibitions.   I made a significant body of work in South Wales in collaboration with residents of the ex-mining town and often in direct response to National Museum of Wales collection.  The people I photographed included shopkeepers, B&B owners, ex-miners, knitters, families, rockers, volunteers, historians and the legendary Blaenavon Male Voice Choir.

Encore - The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Encore stages two complementary series of portraits of musicians in Blaenavon, a former mining town in the south Wales Valleys. Inspired by historic portraits in the National Museum Cardiff collection, Alicia Bruce’s photographs highlight the individuality of the sitters while retaining their identity as a collective. Both series were shot on stage in Blaenavon Workman’s Hall during Bruce’s residency as part of Ffotogallery’s recent Valleys commission. They depict distinct groups of performers from different generations who are tied together geographically and share a love of performance. By restaging compositions from celebrated paintings in the National Museum Cardiff, Bruce eloquently reconnects the Blaenavon musicians with a greater Welsh musical heritage.

A Ffotogallery project.

The Valleys Re-Presented - Tramshed

David Bailey, David Barnes, Mike Berry, Maurice Broomfield, Alicia Bruce, Huw Davies, John Davies, Jeremy Deller, Peter Fraser, Bruce Gilden, Philip Jones Griffiths, Francesca Odell, Ron McCormick, Paul Reas, Zhao Renhui, Roger Tiley, William Tsui

An exhibition bringing together contemporary, historical and vernacular photography which has the south Wales’ Valleys and its communities as its subject. The Valleys Re-Presented examines different visual narratives and typologies and how the currency of images creates and sustains particular mythologies about people and place.

A Ffotogallery project.

I’m looking forward to returning to Wales for the festival opening weekend and hope to see lots of you, especially Blaenavon folks at the exhibitions.

Images from both exhibitions will be in the portfolio section of this website after the opening weekend.

www.diffusionfestival.org/programme-item/encore

www.diffusionfestival.org/programme-item/the-valleys-re-presented

“Motion S4M-05749: Patrick Harvie, Glasgow, Scottish Green Party, Date Lodged: 27/02/2013

Menie Community Photography Project
That the Parliament congratulates the award-winning Aberdeenshire photographer, Alicia Bruce, on her ongoing photography project about Menie, an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Aberdeenshire coast; understands that her photographs from this series have gained international acclaim and have been published in The Times, The Scotsman and several arts magazines, and that two of the portraits have been acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland, and welcomes that Alicia’s photographs, many of which restage compositions from celebrated paintings, have helped to tell the story of the residents of Menie, whose homes came under threat due to what it considers the bullish golf course development of Donald Trump, and to portray a side of that story that otherwise might have gone unheard.”

Mike Forbes was recognised in a motion in 2012 following winning Top Scot at Spirit of Scotland Awards.

“Motion S4M-05068: Patrick Harvie, Glasgow, Scottish Green Party, Date Lodged: 03/12/2012

I hope that all of the residents of Menie will be recognised in this way in the near future. 

There are now 8717 signatures on the petition calling for a public inquiry into the handling of the Trump resort.

Alex Salmond looking Mike Forbes in the eye.
© Alicia Bruce
All Rights Reserved

We spoke for about 12 minutes about my project. “Beautiful, powerful photographs” said Mr Salmond as he began to explain why he “greatly admires the Forbes family” saying they are “real characters”.  It was clear that bringing the Menie exhibition to The Scottish Parliament had my desired effect of reaching my target audience, The Scottish Government.

He also told me he had “met Donald Trump once” at a Global Scots meeting in New York attended by sixteen others.  Mr Salmond says he does not agree with Trump’s bully-boy tactics but he thinks the golf course is a good idea.  I pointed out the undeniable damage on the fourth tee of Trump International Golf Links Scotland ‘as nature fights back’ leaving large areas of the course unsafe & unplayable.  It was useful to have a 30×30 inch un-edited print right there to refer to.

The Forth Tee of Trump International Golf Links Scotland
Nature Fights Back
January 2013
© Alicia Bruce
All Rights Reserved

I also had the opportunity to point out the exact spot in residents Susan & John Munro’s garden where Trump’s angry security guard threatened to smash my camera and get back-up as I walked to the Munro’s home with a packet of biscuits in  May 2012.

John & Susan Munro have lived at Leyton Cottage for over 30 years. Trump’s developers have now surrounded their home with mounds of earth and trees obliterating their view towards Aberdeen.
© Alicia Bruce
All Rights Reserved

Mr Salmond told me he had never discussed windfarms with Trump and acknowledged that he took my opinions on  board as a constituent of his area (my parents live in Aberdeenshire).  He said several times that he had “met Mike Forbes”, I pointed to the house ‘Mill of Menie’ in my portrait of Mike & Sheila Forbes. “Have you been in this house?” I said, “No, not to the croft” he replied “I’ve met Mike at a Trump planning event”.

I knew that The First Minister had never been to the doorsteps of the Menie residents whom I’ve been photographing since 2010.  I decided that I should take their doorstep to his, The Members’ Lobby of the Scottish Parliament where they couldn’t be ignored.   This certainly got his attention.  My only regret is that I didn’t display these photographs here in 2010 as construction began on ‘The Great Dunes of Scotland’.

Thank you for reading this post.  Please take 30 seconds of your time sign Menie resident David Milne’s petition to launch a full public inquiry into the handling of the Trump golf resort.

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/public-inquiry-into-handling-of-the-trump-resort

I leave you with a recent photograph of David & Moira inspecting the latest gift left for them by their American tycoon neighbour.

David & Moira Milne have lived at Hermit Point for over 20 years. This wood was planted in front of their home in January 2013 in addition to Scots pines which had been erected by Trump International to hide their property from view.
© Alicia Bruce
All Rights Reserved

Photographs from my ongoing series ‘Menie: a portrait of a North East coastal community in conflict’ are currently being exhibited in the Members Lobby of  The Scottish Parliament.  MSPs will this week come face to face with the community on the front line of Donald Trump’s development.  The exhibition also features shocking new photographs of nature fighting back against the manufactured landscape created by Trump International.  A large-scale print of the damaged fourth tee which has collapsed in on itself during the winter months.  About eight meters of the course has literally fallen into the sea.

Nature fights back against a manufactured landscape.
The Forth Tee. Trump International Golf Links Scotland.
January 2013
Photograph © Alicia Bruce

I’m pleased to be showing these photographs at The Scottish Parliament as it brings the images straight to my target audience, the Scottish Government.  I have witnessed first hand the horrifying treatment of the local residents and the destruction of an SSSI for a short lived commercial development. I urge the Scottish Government to think seriously about the damage and irreversible impact which would be caused by the proposed second golf course. Nature is already fighting against the first course and, as my photographs show, the result is bitter sweet.  I hope this exhibition will kick start a public inquiry into the handling of the Trump Organisation’s project by Scottish authorities.

I hope many people as possible show support by signing this petition launched by Menie resident David Milne last week.

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/public-inquiry-into-handling-of-the-trump-resort

Newly planted gorse & boundary fencing limiting the Public Access Route to Trump International Golf Links Scotland
September 2012
Photograph © Alicia Bruce 

“The destruction and stress piled on the community of Menie by Donald Trump is unforgivable. This exhibition has an important role in reminding MSPs of the consequences of cosying up to arrogant bullies used to getting their way. The Scottish Government still has big questions to answer on its role in pushing through Trump’s plans and now is the right time for a public inquiry to find out how we can stop such a scandal ever happening again.”

Patrick Harvie, Green MSP

Moira Milne: Hermit Point
From series ‘Menie: a portrait of a North East costal community in conflict’ 2010
Photograph © Alicia Bruce

The exhibition runs from Monday 18 February throughout Scottish Environment Week 2013.

Molly Forbes: Paradise
From series ‘Menie: a portrait of a North East costal community in conflict’ 2010
Photograph © Alicia Bruce

This unique opportunity was made possible with MSP sponsorship from Patrick Harvie MSP, Malcolm Chisholm MSP and with good wishes from First Minister Alex Salmond.

Menie, the area of the Trump development, is the constituency of Mr Salmond.  Michael Forbes tells me Mr Salmond has never paid a to visit the residents since plans for the course were launched in 2006.

The Scottish Parliament

Hollyrood

Edinburgh

EH99 1SP

Please note that this exhibition is not open to members of the public.

www.scottish.parliament.uk

Read The Scotsman’s article here ‘Farmer who took on Trump triumphs in Spirit awards’

I’ve been working on a project about Menie and the Trump development since 2010.  I now consider the residents of Menie among my good friends.  Mike has stood up against Trump for his family heritage & is now officially a national hero.  The recent BBC screenings of You’ve Been Trumped have brought further public attention to what’s really happened in Menie. I’m unbelievably proud of Mike right now.

Here’s the first snapshot I took of him in his barn in 2010.  A kind, generous and funny man surrounded by friends & family.

Mike Forbes at David McCue’s exhibition opening in his barn
Mill of Menie
2010
© Alicia Bruce

In 2009 Donald Trump said in a vicious statement “Mr Forbes is not a man that people in Scotland should be proud of.”  He branded Mike’s property a slum and claimed he was ‘The Village Idiot’.  Mike’s response?  ’If I’m The Village Idiot then he must be The New York Clown’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9rRjTkDREM&feature=related

Mike & Sheila Forbes
Mill of Menie
2010
© Alicia Bruce

You can see my portrait of ‘Mike & Sheila Forbes: Mill of Menie’ at The Royal Scottish Academy until 31 January 2013.  The American Gothic inspired portrait is also held in The National Galleries of Scotland collection.  I’m so proud to be friends with Mike Forbes, a true national treasure.

Mike Forbes at his bonfire party.
Mill of Menie
2012
© Alicia Bruce

Happy St Andrews Day Folks! Raise a glass to Michael Forbes. Top Scot!

Two photographs from my ongoing Menie series are featured in a new exhibition at The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

‘Mike & Sheila Forbes: Mill of Menie’  and  a landscape photograph from the series ‘Please don’t pretend to care about my country’s scenery in order to make yourself even richer’* are both on display.

‘Menie: Please don’t pretend to care about my country’s scenery in order to make yourself even richer’ © Alicia Bruce

This exhibition comes at an another unsettling stage in the Menie story.  Donald Trump is now seeking permission to build a second golf course at Menie in spite of concerns from local residents and environmental groups.

It is important for me to help keep the residents side of the story in the public domain as well as highlight the environmental impact caused to what was “Scotland’s equivalent of the Amazon Rainforest” (Dr Jim Hansom).  The image above shows geese flying over what was a dynamic mobile sand dune.  The pattern on the dune is marram grass which has been ‘plugged in’ to stabilise the dune.  These actions have lost the area it’s accreditation as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), the future impact of these actions is unknown.

‘Mike & Sheila Forbes: Mill of Menie’ 2010 © Alicia Bruce

Michael & Sheila Forbes wrote the following statements to accompany their portrait which we made in collaboration with them outside their home.

“I’ve stayed here for 43 year, if I didn’t like the place I wouldn’t have stayed so long. Ma history is doon here. All ma relations come fae roon aboot here & there’s nothing mare magical than Menie. The wildlife is just ootside ma door, or was till Trump came on the go. When the diggers are all working you dinna see the wildlife but since the diggers are gone for Christmas holiday the wildlife is back.

The media’s been camping on ma doorstep since 2006 but there’s only certain media that prints the truth.

All I want is to be left in peace the same as all the locals. Just leave me in peace. The only good thing this situation has ever done for Menie is brought all the locals together!”

Michael Forbes, 2010

“Menie is unique.

I’ve seen the Northern Lights from my doorstep. I’ve seen them every so often oot the back where we keep the hens, geese n horse. I stop for a while to look then get back to whatever needs done. Farr will we get another hame in a location like this? Naewhere round here is as amazing.

I’ve stayed out the spotlight since this all kicked off. I just want to get on wi it wi nae hassel.”

Sheila Forbes, 2010

Trump branded Mike as ‘The Village Idiot’ to which Mike responded “he must be the New York clown” on STV News 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9rRjTkDREM&feature=related

In my experience the Forbes family are hospitable, generous and genuine.  They have an respectful affection for the land and have chosen not to be complacent but to stand up for their family heritage.

Both Mike & Sheila are delighted to have their photograph in this exhibition.  If you wish to show the residents support please write to them at Mill of Menie or go to You’ve Been Trump’s website where a list of  TAKE ACTION suggestions are listed.

……

The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL

Opening Times: Monday – Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 12-5pm

24 November 2012 – 31 January 2013

Admission Free

Tel: 0131 225 6671   Fax: 0131 220 6016

*Lyric reproduced with kind permission from Aidan John Moffat

To read the case study go here: http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2012/11/not-the-usual-highland-welcome-im-going-to-smash-your-camera/