A sequel to my piece about Francis Chrystal - considering a different kind of photographer in Scotland's capital, Robert Blomfield: open.substack.com/pub/lixmount...

In Deanhaugh Street: the Edinburgh Photography of Robert Blomfield

(The photographs accompanying this piece were taken at the University of Edinburgh’s 2022 Exhibition of Blomfield’s work, Student of Light. Blomfield’s work is superbly presented at the site created b...

open.substack.com

Seeing your wife's pieces issued as part of enduringly important publications never, ever gets old.

Kit Baston@kgbaston.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Got my contributor's copy of Volume I, Part II of the excellent 'Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland'! (Part I is so popular that @edinburghup.bsky.social is already reprinting it! Part II has my contribution in it so I'm happy for now - lots of fun reading to do!) 📖✒️

It's only now I'm realising how significant vignetting was as a part of all of my childhood holiday photos.

Forty years after buying the cheapest plastic-lensed 35mm camera in the whole Dixons range, I took it to the Spanish City at Whitley Bay with a roll of Kodak Gold 400.

We're delighted to announce the completion of a cataloguing project led by Dr. Kit Baston to remap & record our unique and important collection of pamphlets and ephemera by the great Georgian Edinburgh eccentric William Mitchel, the "Tincklarian Doctor." www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/tincklariand...

The entrance hall of the Signet Library from a 1925 Country Life photograph newly donated to the Library. The decoration scheme was put in by architect Robert Rowan Anderson in 1908 - in colour in Patrick Adam's 1920 painting on the right - which would endure into the 1960s.

..the work of many early photographers. @kgbaston.bsky.social and I prepared the material for display and thoroughly enjoyed chatting to our lovely guests before they moved on to the www.npg.org.uk to see their fabulous Alfred Buckham exhibition.

A real treat this week, a one-off photographic exhibition at @signetlibrary.bsky.social by @lixmount.bsky.social for @rpshistgroup.bsky.social This selection of our photographic collection featured our Hill & Adamson Album, negatives of Penicuik House, albums from the Roughead Collection plus..

Drainpipe shadows this morning, Boat Green.

One of the better afternoons of my life was spent in reading the final draft of @kgbaston.bsky.social 's book "Charles Areskine's Library: Lawyers and Their Books at the Dawn of the Scottish Enlightenment". Kit writes about this fantastic book 10 years on: www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/04/10/h...

Two from Trinity, Leith's Victorian coastal suburb

No one took our "Edinburgh" bait!: it's New York, 1927, the Todhunter Building, designed to ape European late medieval structures, taken from a magnificent vol of pre-1929 American commercial buildings. Well done @ruinista.bsky.social for getting it absolutely spot on.

James Hamilton@lixmount.bsky.social · 4mo ago

@johockey.bsky.social and I were looking at this puzzle picture this morning. Would anyone care to guess the location and the date of the building?

It feels like Prague to me - and pre 1906 when number plates became mandatory?

The buildings across the street feel very NYC to me, as does the street itself. I'd guess ... 1910s/early 20s?

It has bit of an Atget vibe. Paris in the 1910s?

Looks like the Canongate but I don’t recognise it!

@johockey.bsky.social and I were looking at this puzzle picture this morning. Would anyone care to guess the location and the date of the building?

'Lessay Abbey, Normandy, France' by Ursula Clark (1940-2000). Two of the recently-discovered images by the Newcastle upon Tyne photographer. The full story in my latest Pressphotoman blogpost. Link below.

Dr. David Barber@pressphotoman.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Looking forward to taking part in Sunday's 'Women of Photography' 24-Hour Conference-A-Thon (15:24- 15:44 GMT). A Pressphotoman piece on newly-discovered examples of Ursula Clark's architectural photography in Europe PLUS free registration link. pressphotoman.com/2026/03/02/w...

The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #WinterSurvivors - birds that remain throughout your winter season. The alternative is #corvids - birds from the Corvidae family. My choice today is my Little Egret friend. 🥰 #kentbirding #birdphotography #eastcoastkin

It's actually real now!

Fantastic piece here; the only things I'd add is to reflect on the gentle, affectionate nature of the satire; & that the accompanying texts (by James T. Callender?) are essential, and contain vast amounts of information and insight about individuals & society just not found anywhere else.

Edinburgh Libraries@edinburghlibraries.bsky.social · 6mo ago

21 February will mark 200 years since the death of John Kay, the renowned Scottish caricaturist and engraver. Read our blog post to find out more about his life and a new Capital Collections exhibition showcasing around 360 of his portraits and caricatures - zurl.co/Hq5ZS

Spent part of @inpursuitusa.bsky.social launch @nyhistory.bsky.social with teachers looking at Rev-era documents, including this early 19th c. facsimile copy of the Declaration, set against the 1773 freedom petition by Peter Bestes, Sambo Freeman, Felix Holbrook,& Chester Joie from Massachusetts.

Something personal here, a repaying of a debt to an Edinburgh photographer of the pre-1939 era whose work helped me attempt my own projects and acclimatise to Edinburgh when I was first here. The (melancholy in places) story of Francis Maxwell Chrystal: lixmount.substack.com/p/francis-ma...

Francis Maxwell Chrystal 1882-1944

Edinburgh Photography's Last Edwardian

lixmount.substack.com

Curious to see what’s inside our new Anthotype book by @malinfabbri.bsky.social ? 🌿 It takes you step by step through the process – and a lot more! Ready to learn? See: 👉 www.alternativephotography.com/anthotypes-c... #anthotype #anthotypes #altprocess

Some recent nonsense.

Aston Expressway, Birmingham. My photo 1980.

For Henry Fox Talbot's birthday, my favourite of his prints - this magical glimpse through curtains out onto ships in the harbour at Rouen, 1843. To go with it, @roseteanby.bsky.social 's article on Talbot's Rouen for the Talbot Catalogue Raisonné blog - talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/2018/03/09/t...

The Signet Library@signetlibrary.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Signet Library followers will be familiar with the work of our conservator, @johockey.bsky.social , who has created a new website bringing together both her Signet Library research and conservation work - it's at johockey.substack.com

Some current work stuff

The Signet Library@signetlibrary.bsky.social · 6mo ago

An hour away from Jen and Ben's Mixed Doubles Curling Bronze Medal match - we've a new online exhibition on the literature of Scotland's Ain Game - see our new blogpost about it at www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/2026/02/10/s...