Ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a selection of images have been released from the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP). Captured during numerous reconnaissance sorties flown throughout 6 June 1944, NCAP’s archives include over 7,750 images recording this momentous day. These photos offer a comprehensive visual narrative of one of the most consequential days of the twentieth century. To learn more about the 30 million images in the archive, please visit ncap.org.uk.

About NCAP

The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), part of Historic Environment Scotland, holds one of the world’s most significant aerial photography collections with 30 million images. This archive offers a unique view of key moments in world history, including rare images from the 1920s and declassified Ministry of Defence reconnaissance imagery from WWII and the Cold War.

NCAP has become the leading repository for managing aerial photographic collections, continuously acquiring imagery from various survey and research projects while pioneering new digitisation efforts to make these collections more widely available. With access to images from every continent, many of which were previously unavailable to the public, NCAP provides a unique dataset that is attracting new users and applications. In the coming months, new online platforms will make it even easier to discover these collections.

About Historic Environment Scotland (HES) 

• We are the lead body for Scotland’s historic environment, a charity dedicated to the advancement of heritage, culture, education and environmental protection. It is at the forefront of researching and understanding the historic environment and addressing the impacts of climate change on its future, investigating and recording architectural and archaeological sites and landscapes across Scotland and caring for more than 300 properties of national importance. We are also the lead on delivering Scotland’s strategy for the historic environment, Our Past, Our Future.
• Historic Scotland, Scran, Canmore, The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), The Engine Shed, Stirling Castle, and Edinburgh Castle are sub-brands of HES.
• View our press pack and keep up to date by registering to receive our media releases. Already registered? You can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link, included in every email.

Follow HES

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For further information, please contact:

Robin Kepple
Historic Environment Scotland Media Office
07721 959 962
communications@hes.scot

Gregg first came across these processions after arriving in Mexico City in 2020, hoping to enjoy the comparative freedom that the nation’s relaxed COVID-19 restrictions offered. Taken to Tepito by a friend knowledgeable about the new religious movement of Santa Muerte, Gregg himself was in the dark. “My way of working is very instinctive. I almost intentionally try to arrive somewhere having done as little research as possible. It sounds ignorant and lazy, but I actually think it’s a very good method for achieving honest results. You go into these environments without any prejudice whatsoever and what you experience is the reality.”

It’s certainly plausible that some people might have tried to dissuade Gregg from photographing Tepito’s Santa Muerte believers. “The things you read about Santa Muerte, its connections to the narcos for example, it has a very negative reputation, especially in the mainstream media,” Gregg explains. “As they say, ‘fear is the mind killer’, and if I had listened to the fearmongering mainstream media over the past decade then this project as well as others in Napoli and Bangkok would have never happened. But, with that being said, I would still only advise going to Tepito with a local or someone who knows the area well.”

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Culture

The annual fair has evolved into a critical platform for artists to explore and expand the boundaries of photographic expression

Courtesy of Verse Solos
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As the historic Somerset House once again became a focal point for the art world, Photo London reaffirmed its status as a premier event in the realm of contemporary photography. Relaunched in 2015, this annual fair has evolved into a critical platform for artists to explore and expand the boundaries of photographic expression. The recently concluded edition presented an extraordinary array of works that epitomized the innovative spirit of the medium.

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Highlights include pioneering works that merge photography with cutting-edge technology, transforming still images into dynamic video art and immersive installations. Sculptural pieces that incorporate photographic elements invite viewers to explore the physicality of the medium in novel ways. From the ethereal to the provocative, the fair’s diverse array of exhibits showcases the boundless potential of photography as a versatile and ever-evolving art form.

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Amidst the sea of pristine white cubes typical of art fair booths, the presentation by Galerie Bacqueville stood out with its striking blue-painted walls. The deep, immersive blue transformed the booth into a distinct, almost ethereal environment fit for the mesmerizing and complex works by Thomas Devaux. In his series Dichroics, Devaux positions dichroic glass in front of his photographs, encasing them in gold-leafed frames. The interplay between the light, the glass and the gilding creates dynamic, captivating pieces that are challenging to photograph but encourage viewers to interact and capture their reflections.

Trolley Books and Michael Hoppen jointly presented Siân Davey‘s award-winning series and new publication, The Garden. The exhibition aimed to recreate the intimate and beautiful space depicted in Davey’s photographs. In the East Wing of Somerset House, a small, enclosed booth was transformed into an enchanting setting with grass and wildflowers. A centerpiece of the exhibit was the original armchair featured in many of the photographs. Visitors were encouraged to sit in the armchair, peruse the book and appreciate the surrounding flowers and three framed prints. 

Spazio Nuovo’s presentation of synthetic photography created by Giuseppe Lo Schiavo was a mesmerizing blend of realism and digital artistry, captivating viewers with its serene depiction of windowed seascapes. The hyper-realistic quality blurs the line between reality and digital manipulation, inviting contemplation on the nature of visual perception and the artifice inherent in all photography. The play of light and shadow on the white walls and floor surrounding the images enhances the lifelike quality, making the scenes appear as though they could be actual views from a contemporary seaside home. The series not only highlights the technological advancements in digital art but also reflects a broader theme of escapism and the longing for connection with nature, themes that resonate deeply in our increasingly digital world. 

Verse Solos presented Vacation, a series of 500 works by Finnish artist Roope Rainisto. The exhibition room captures the essence of a summer vacation, featuring vibrant beach-themed photographs and a playful installation with deck chairs, beach balls and a striped umbrella set against a classic architectural backdrop. Rainisto employs AI-based generative techniques to transform idealized holiday images into abstract and distorted scenes. These works explore the artist’s fascination with creating liminal spaces that navigate the boundaries between the familiar and unfamiliar, as well as reality and simulation. Picturesque scenes and idealized notions of escapism are juxtaposed with the unsettling realization that true escape from our lives is unattainable. The works carry an uncanny and sometimes grotesque quality, generating a powerful and often disturbing tension that examines the destabilization of our collective perception of reality. This interplay is a key element in Rainisto’s work, using AI’s imperfections as a deliberate tool to underscore the absurdity within aspirational ideals, reframing the mundane and shifting popular perspectives.

Presented by Leila Heller Gallery, Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell’s Spring Sonata is a lens-based artwork from their series The Wild Within, which revitalizes abandoned buildings from bygone eras. Using photography of real-world spaces, the artists digitally transform these sites through three-dimensional techniques. The featured building is an abandoned residence from the 1700s in Northern Italy, with crumbling walls adorned with hand-painted scenes of the myth of Niobe by Nicolò Contestabili. Koopmans and Wexell use this backdrop to unleash their creativity, reinterpreting the space and transforming it into a new state. The artists’ process is taking the architectural ruins, digitally infusing vegetation, modifying structures and lighting, and altering scenes to rejuvenate these empty spaces. The resulting artworks create a surreal blend of past and future, natural and manmade, physical and digital, and real and imaginary. The artwork evokes a sense of surreal tranquility while reflecting on architectural history and its interaction with nature and time. Many buildings featured in The Wild Within have been demolished in recent years, highlighting the theme of time’s passage in the cycle of growth and decay.

It shows a woman holding a tray of piping hot red bean paste balls being prepared for the holiday celebration, which traditionally also includes dishes such as dumplings and glutinous rice, in Xiangshan, Zhejiang.

The image is an ode to the scale of the festival – the most important holiday on the Chinese lunar calendar – and the dedication that goes into preparing food for the celebrations.

“This wonderful, perfectly balanced image is full of light, shadow, mystery and poignancy,” says Caroline Kenyon, founder of the competition.

“It is clear a celebratory feast is being prepared. The food is exquisitely made, its circular shapes contrasting with the angularity of the fretwork screens, through which the light pours.

“Meanwhile, the woman who has made the food, weary, carries in yet another tray. Her role is to labour and to serve, while the guests party and enjoy.”

The competition, now in its 13th year, is open to professionals and amateurs alike, who can enter work that tells stories about food under more than 25 categories.

This is not Yang’s first victory in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition – in 2023’s edition, he won in three categories.

Anchang Sugar Dance Artist, which shows a man from Zhejiang working masterfully with sugar, won the Philip Harben Award for Food in Action and in the China category. Hanging Up Persimmons, taken in Shanxi province in autumn, won the vote in the Moments of Joy category.

Like Red Bean Paste Balls, both images have a rawness and immediacy to them. His photos offer snapshots of intimate interactions with food in different parts of China.

Yang’s triumphs in the competition shine a global spotlight on Chinese food and its important place in Chinese culture.

Yang is a member of the Chinese Photographers Association, the director of the Ningbo Photographers Association, and honorary chairman of the Xiangshan Photographers Association.

Among the other winning images this year are Let Them Eat Cake! by Scottish photographer Lynne Kennedy, which depicts an unconventional wedding celebration on the island of Skye in Scotland and took first place in the Champagne Taittinger Wedding Food Photographer category.

B.L.T Contemplation, which won the Claire Aho Award for Women Photographers, shows a woman looking yearningly out of her window while eating a sandwich.

The awards were first held in 2011 and celebrate food and diversity around the world through photography.

“Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year continues to tell important food stories from across the globe through the very best photography,” said Phil Turnbull, chief executive of APAL, owner of the Pink Lady apple brand and headline sponsor of the competition.

“Each year, the remarkable photographs serve as a reminder of the fundamental role of food in every culture and every people around the world.”

This year’s competition attracted thousands of entries from more than 65 countries. The finalists’ entries will be on display in the Mall Galleries in London until June 9.

The dramatic recovery of some of Scotland’s most iconic habitats has been revealed to the public in a new pioneering photographic project.

Using historical photographs which in some cases date back 70 years, NatureScot, the Scottish Government’s environment agency has re-taken the same photos at the same location and at the same time of the year at six of its National Nature Reserves across the Highlands.

The result is a unique time-lapse record of how some of Scotland’s most threatened habitats including Caledonian pine and birch forests together with peat bogs are now recovering thanks to the efforts of conservation managers.

“Even when we are very familiar with an area, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate change, especially when it happens slowly,” explains Ian Sargent, NatureScot’s Nature Reserves Manager for Central Highland.

“Repeat photography allows us a fascinating look back in time and an insight into the dramatic but sometimes unnoticed changes to the landscape down through the years.”

Some of the most striking changes that the time-lapse photography has revealed can be seen at the Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve in the heart of the Scottish Highlands which became a reserve in 1986.

Despite being one of the newest of NatureScot’s reserves, Creag Meagaidh has achieved widespread landscape-scale restoration in a relatively short space of time with a dramatic increase mainly in the number of birch trees but also with other native tree species including alder, rowan and hazel.

Key to the success at Creag Meagaidh and many of the other reserves that feature in the project has been the removal of both sheep from the reserve and the management of the local deer population.

“Red and roe deer are native species and we wanted to keep them so we haven’t used deer fences but instead we cull their numbers to manage them to a sustainable level,” says Sargent.

“Our aim over the years has been to restore nature to allow it to function naturally with minimal intervention on our reserves,” adds Sargent.

“In turn, these nature-rich areas provide many benefits, including increased biodiversity, carbon storage and resilience to climate change.”

More wildlife stories:

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Credit: StackSocial