2003 Infinity Award: Writing

Sara Stevenson is chief curator of the Scottish National Photographic Collection in the National Galleries of Scotland. She has written extensively about Scottish photography in books such as Facing the Light: the Photography of Hill & Adamson and Light from the Dark Room: A Celebration of Scottish Photography: A Scottish-Canadian Collaboration. Stevenson also wrote Magna Brava: Magnum’s Women Photographers, which celebrates women in photojournalism by focusing on the work of five top photographers in the Magnum photographic collective.

Stevenson’s newest book, The Personal Art of David Octavius Hill, is a studied exploration of the man who many believe created the first photographic masterpieces, in the 1840s. Hill, who collaborated with the photographer Robert Adamson during a fruitful four-year period, contributed a great deal to the technical evolution of the medium and to its artistic development. In her narrative, Stevenson carefully analyzes Hill and Adamson’s personal and professional relationship as well as the social milieu in which their work was produced. Published by Yale University Press, The Personal Art of David Octavius Hill gives well-deserved attention to the work and life of a fundamental early photographer.