Steòrnabhagh
The town of Stornoway (Gaelic Steòrnabhagh) is the administrative centre of the Isle of Lewis and Harris off the west coast of Scotland, and the roughly 10,000 people living in it and its surrounding civil parish comprise nearly half the population of the entire island. Despite its importance, it is very much photographically overlooked in favour of the stark and stunning landscape of the island, peppered as it is with turquoise beaches, sheer cliffs, crystalline lochs, and cloud draped hills. Traditional street photography focusing on people and evocative moments is a challenge in Stornoway, as there simply isn't often a lot of people out and about, and amongst the few that are, one tends to be very conspicuous waving a camera around. While I do that when and where I can, through this series I attempt instead to take a collective portrait of the harbour town itself, perhaps not picturesque in a conventional sense, but nonetheless possessing a certain stoic beauty in its posture against the Hebridean environment.
