Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Women of the land: females in farming the subject of photography exhibit

Lucy stacking fleeces, Amulree, Perthshire.
Lucy stacking fleeces, Amulree, Perthshire.

Career options for women in Scotland’s agricultural industries are rarely highlighted.

However, photographer Sophie Gerrard’s new exhibition looks set to upturn a few stereotypes by focusing on females who run successful farming ventures in some of the nation’s wildest landscapes. Originally shown in Edinburgh in 2014/15, she recently spent a year capturing subjects in Perthshire for her enhanced version of Drawn To The Land.

“It was started as a way of exploring the Scottish landscape through the eyes of women,” Sophie, 41, explains.

“When I lived in London I was reminded very much of the romantic view of the countryside as a superficial picture of the landscape that hits us with nostalgia and patriotism.

“I always found that puzzling because it’s not the Scotland I knew. I wanted to get underneath the surface and find out about the landscape through the people that’re responsible for it and getting their hands dirty every single day, and women were an obvious choice .”

Patricia Glennie’s blackfaced ewes with windfarm turbines at the Threeburnford farm, Lauder, Scottish Borders, January 2014.

The exhibition contrasts Sophie’s work with a series of black and white images documenting life in the 1960s at Laighwood Farm, near Dunkeld, taken by late Perth photographer John Watt.

“He’s not somebody I knew about but the organisers were keen to reference its archive via contemporary photography,” she says.

“The archive’s really interesting but was mostly shot by men and the farming work focuses on male farmers. It proves a point that the historic masculine view of the countryside is perpetuated in collections.

“As far as I understand, Watt was working for the wool secretariat and was documenting a year in the life of a hill farm. The siblings who run the farm appeared with their father back then and the images went to make a children’s storybook about the life of a black-faced sheep.

“They highlight the huge changes we’ve seen visually in the countryside in a relatively short space of time. The features of Scotland’s hills are changing and issues such as common agricultural policy, Brexit and an ageing population of farmers make their future is really unpredictable.”

Lucy, Foswell, Auchterarder, Perthshire, June 2019, from the Sophie Gerrard exhibition<br />Drawn to the Land at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

The images Sophie captured at six farms across Scotland in 2013 when she started putting the project together plus new photos from Strathearn feature alongside the Butterstone stills at the first Scottish staging of the exhibition since its debut. Included is fresh work from a return to Connachan Farm, by Crieff, which was among the venues she visited six years ago.

“The women I’m photographing are not farmers’ wives, which is the detrimental term that would’ve been used to document them as secondary figures throughout history,” she says.

Mary at the Dalmally Tup Sales, Dalmally, Argyll & Bute, October 2013. From the series Drawn To The Land: Women Working the Scottish Landscape

“They’re businesswomen who take decisions and I wanted to place them front and centre. I’ve also photographed two full-time female shepherds in their 20s – one based near Amulree and one in Auchterarder – who’re both self-employed.

“We have a male view of the countryside, especially farming. The average farmer is a white 58-year-old man but there’s been a 25% increase in women in agriculture in the last 10 years and I wanted to find out who they were and how they felt.

“One thing inherent in all these women is they couldn’t do anything else. They’ve got this calling in them and I have huge respect for that and am very humbled by it. That’s where the exhibition’s title comes from.”

Ex-environmental scientist Sophie — who is compiling a book around the project — says she she’s looking forward to unveiling her updated show in Perth.

culturepk.org.uk