CONTACT

CONTACT is a new solo exhibition by lens-based artist Jess Holdengarde. Developed during her year as the University of Stirling Artist in Residence.

During her residency, Holdengarde collaborated with researchers from the Scotland Hydro Nation Chair and FORTH2O to understand current research around the River Forth.

Throughout the exhibition photography becomes a point of stillness amidst the shifting states of water, light, and moving image. These grounded moments reveal spaces where the darkroom, filmmaking, scientific research, and the artist's desire to foreground the urgency of climate innovation coexist. It is a place where materiality and feeling intersect; where lenses, landscapes, and climate enquiry become intertwined; and where acts of looking become methods for understanding the world through curiosity, interdisciplinary exchange, and connection.

This exhibition of photography and 16mm film explores the embodied, in-process experience of making contact with lenses, light, water, landscape and Scotland's climate innovation projects, and how these encounters have shaped the process of image-making.

This exhibition marks the first time Holdengarde has explored a more documentary approach within her photography and filmmaking, using this shift in practice to attend closely to the people, processes, and landscapes encountered throughout the research.

Supported by Scotland Hydro Nation, Stills Centre for Photography and FORTH2O, with mentorship and support from LUX Scotland.

This exhibition is a part of the Season of Photography 2026 -  a celebration of photography in Scotland running from 1 September – 20 December 2026.