The Glasgow Jazz Pictures

Alan Donaldson - The Glasgow Jazz Pictures
28th May - 29th June 2025
Trongate 103

Tommy Smith established the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2009 since then former students have stayed in Glasgow forming bands writing music and performing. After developing a love for jazz and jazz clubs on a trip in Paris in 2016, Alan Donaldson was welcomed home to Glasgow with an expanding jazz scene with groups like Fergus McCreadie’s trio, Pete Johnstone and Strata.

Since jazz is a complex form requiring good technique but also the ability to improvise Alan decided to try and mirror this with the photographic technique, using continuous lighting with flash, incorporate coloured gels and improvise with movement and a slow shutter speed. It’s a live performance, everything happens in the studio and in the camera. Post production is a simple tidying up process.

Alan Donaldson is a Glasgow based photographer who has had a working practice over 4 decades since studying photography in the city. He self-published a book ‘Loch Ardinning Pictures’ in 2021; exhibited at Sogo Arts (2023), a series of pictures he called ‘Peripheral’ referencing back to his first project in Clydebank; exhibited the Glasgow Jazz Pictures 22-24 at the New Glasgow Society, and published the book Rimshot/Snapshot (2024).