Alan Donaldson Photographer

Alan was born and raised in Clydebank. Once a shipbuilding town, a heavy industry town in decline and in a state of change. After school he chopped and changed before, almost by accident, found himself at college studying photography. He loved it. The course was a commercial one, but his real interest was American art photography, Walker Evans, Robert Frank. Then the Europeans Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier Bresson. Other inspiration came from The Stills Gallery in Edinburgh and Thomas Joshua Cooper at Glasgow School of Art. After a couple of projects sponsored by The Scottish Arts Council he settled into commercial photography. He changed again when he joined local government as a press photographer, covering stories as diverse as social work outreach in Barlinnie Jail to projects on the remote west coast islands of Scotland.