PICTURES: Fascinating exhibition captures life through the lens of early 20th Century Grantown photographer
An important photographic collection by a Grantown-based lensman capturing life in Badenoch and Strathspey in the early 20th Century has come full circle.
Postcards, surviving negatives and prints from glass plate negatives taken by Alex Ledingham have been donated to the town’s museum by his descendants for safe keeping.
Mr Ledingham and his wife Margaret set-up their first home together in Burnfield House – now Grantown Museum.
To mark the home-coming, an opening night and book launch was held last Friday evening all about the early photographer.
There was a full house for the illustrated talk with author Dr Pete Moore interspersed with music from Grantown acclaimed instrumentalist, Hamish Napier.
The book and associated exhibition illuminate the life and work of Mr Ledingham who built a business in the town that spanned more than seven decades.
The exhibition features examples from his vast postcard series and surviving glass plate negatives from the first half of the 20th Century which have been recreated and interpreted for a modern audience.
The project has been a collaboration between Newtonmore photographer and collector, Pete Moore, traditional musician Napier, Ledingham’s great grandson Alex Cumming and the museum’s curator Dan Cottam.
Forres-born Alex Ledingham made a life for himself and his family in Grantown.
He bought a photographic studio in 1908 and set about recording local events and providing a studio service to the town. His entrepreneurial business sense led him to add to the traditional studio portrait led route of a photographer and create a series of postcards which he sold throughout the area as well as in his own shop.
This range of postcards has created a legacy that documents life in the strath the first half of the 20th Century.
The business he established in the High Street was to survive for 72 years and make a living for two generations as his son, Sandy, returned to Grantown and took over the business in the 1950s.
Museum manager Dan Cottam said: “We are so excited and honoured to be given this important archive to preserve for future generations and are very grateful to the Cumming family for their generous donation of this legacy.
“Pete Moore’s book is a super record of local life in the early part of the 20th Century showing off Strathspey and Badenoch life as it was, highlighting key events and surprising changes to the landscape and towns.
“We hope the exhibition will delight audiences by being able to get up close with the people and sights of the past. It really is a unique a fascinating record.”
Mr Moore said: “I have been interested in the photographs of Alex Ledingham for some years and included them in my research on Cairngorms photographers.
“It has been a privilege to be able to explore the archive further, see the full range of his photography both landscape and from the studio and it is a very impressive body of work.
“It is great to be able to share a flavour through the exhibition and the book.
“We think there are around 285 numbered postcards that cover Badenoch and Strathspey and a little bit of Nairn, and another hundred or so additional cards, marking events in the areas.
“I have been compiling a list of these for some years. It is a list which is not yet complete and any additional local records – simply the number and title of the card – would be gratefully received at the museum to help complete this record.”
Mr Cumming said: ‘Our family is delighted that these photographs are being recognised as an important record.
“I have really enjoyed being involved in this project and seeing the information and exhibition come together. It was a particular privilege to formally hand over the archive to the museum and I am looking forward to seeing the online gallery that will take Alex Ledingham’s photographs to a wider audience and form an enduring legacy.”
• ‘Alex Ledingham, Grantown’s Photo Artist’ will run through the summer at the Grantown Museum and the book of the same name is on sale there and at local outlets.
