2010 Awardee: Alex Boyd
I appreciate the opportunity that I have been given to complete my project ‘Sonnets from Scotland’, and I look forward to sharing my progress with…the trustees in the coming months.
Biography
Born in Germany and now resident in Ayrshire, Alex began his ‘Sonnets of Scotland’ project in 2007. A History of Art graduate from the University of Glasgow, Alex describes his project as a “photographic journey around the coasts and countryside of Scotland” to document the historically significant open spaces and question traditional assumptions and romantic depictions of the landscape. A lone figure appears in each photograph, referencing romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, John Knox and the early work of Hamish Macmillan.
Alex has already exhibited his work in the US, across Scotland, in London and on mainland Europe in over 20 solo and group shows. He was short-listed for a BBC photography award in 2005 and was a finalist in the EU ‘Imagine’ Photographer of the Year Award in 2009.
He took part in Anthony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth project, collaborating with Scottish poet, Edwin Morgan. They presented a unique combination of photography by Boyd and poetry reading by Morgan.
In 2008, Alex exhibited images from the ‘Sonnets from Scotland’ series projected onto Europe’s largest building, the Palace of the Parliament in Romania. He is currently creating new work to be exhibited as large projections in Battersea Power Station in the summer of 2010. For more information about Alex’s work, see www.alexboyd.co.uk
How the Award Helped
The Dewar Arts Award will enable Alex to finish his ‘Sonnets of Scotland’ project.
Since the Award
Alex has shown some of his ‘Sonnets’ at arts festivals across Europe and was also finalist in the prestigious Photographic Award Genius Loci, Spirit of Place and Cultural Diversity. He has been offered residencies in Tuscany and Ireland, a PhD place at a top Scottish University and has been teaching at GSA. Alex writes, “my journey in photography has been greatly enhanced through the help of the Dewar Award and [I have been given] opportunities that would not have been possible without [this] help and kind support….for that I am very grateful indeed.”
The Sonnets from Scotland – a short film shot on location in Skye, Glencoe and the Scottish Highlands.
I appreciate the opportunity that I have been given to complete my project ‘Sonnets from Scotland’, and I look forward to sharing my progress with…the trustees in the coming months.