| There are no more than a handful
of women who are today ranked among the world's best landscape
photographers. Scotland's Sue Anderson is one of them. In a
fiercely competitive almost entirely male-dominated business,
she is recognised as an outstanding professional with great
natural gifts. She has an artist's sensitivity and an eye for
light and landscape which has allowed her to capture the essence
of some of Scotland's most beautiful places. It has been a long,
hard road to the top but, in a curious way, all the obstacles
placed in her career path have simply served to strengthen her
resolve. "It is unfortunately still true", she says,
"that women, in whatever their chosen professional field,
do have to be twice as talented and work twice as hard to reach
their career goals. I persevered in the face of a lot of deeply
entrenched attitudes because I knew I had talent and energy
and I was absolutely determined to make it. Failure was not
an option".
When she was a girl her father, who was a hydraulics
designer, often took her with him whenever he toured factories
and photographed machinery. He gave her a Kodak Box Brownie
and encouraged her to snap away. Later he taught her the mysteries
of processing and printing. The childhood memories of the
red safety light glowing in the attic darkroom at home, the
black and white photographic images emerging as if by magic
from the chemical soup, and the pungent aromas of developers
and fixatives, remain vivid in her mind's eye. Although all
this experience would ultimately provide her with an excellent
grounding, there was never any serious consideration given
to her becoming a professional photographer. Instead she embarked
on a sensible Business Course in shorthand and typing and
went into the travel business. She took on a series of jobs
in business and each in its own way provided a layer of experience
which she would later draw on.
It was an extended working tour of Scotland
in the early eighties which finally convinced her to hazard
all on a photographic career. On the Isle of Coll she realised
that fuzzy picture postcards on sale in the post office were
hopelessly out of date. Why not provide a whole portfolio
of new images? Why not focus on Scotland's islands? It was
the financial support provided by Conservative Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher's Enterprise Allowance Scheme which enabled
her to get started. A friendly bank helped and so too did
various grants from the Highlands and Islands Development
Board.
"In those days," she said, "I
was a bit of a curiosity: a woman on an island, starting a
business on my own. I took my bicycle on the ferry to Tiree
and rode around talking to the shopkeepers. They all wanted
new postcards so I went to Isla and then on to the Outer Hebrides,
Lewis and Harris and the Uists. They too all wanted new post
cards so I was in business. Later I went to Orkney and Shetland
and opened up new markets there as well. Step by step I built
up my portfolio and developed an ever-increasing clientele.
From the very beginning I identified the Scottish islands
as my particular niche. I think I now know every nook and
cranny on every island.
Sue is the first to admit that she is
generally far from being a patient person. "But I've
learned patience," she says. "I've learned to wait;
for the weather, for the light, for the moment when the whole
composition suddenly comes together. I spend a lot of time
in my little camper van travelling to really remote places,
waiting for precisely the right conditions. I think I know,
when I trip the shutter that I've captured something special
but there's always a great thrill when the transparencies
come back from the lab and there's the confirmation. There
is so much beauty in Scotland and especially in Argyll and
the islands that it is really a great joy to be able to work
in the midst of it. I'm quite sure I must have the best job
in the world".
Back
|
