An exhibition of photographs showing Old Aberdeen from a new perspective has gone on display at the Old Town House.
The photographs were taken by Gordon Robertson of the University's Human Resources team, who used software to fuse several images together revealing familiar landmarks in a new light.
The exhibition covers a broad range of scenes in Old Aberdeen, including recent creations such as the University of Aberdeen’s new library, in addition to historical buildings.
It is a first exhibition for Gordon, a keen photographer in his spare time. He said: “Old Aberdeen is every photographer’s dream. The High Street would be a perfect backdrop for any costume drama and the architecture of the Old Town House is straight out of a Charles Dickens novel.
“Anyone living or working in Old Aberdeen is privileged to be surrounded by such great photographic opportunities. My objective for this exhibition is that visitors will enjoy the images and hopefully be inspired to discover the hidden gems of Old Aberdeen.”
To create the unique perspective, several photographs in the exhibition were taken using a technique known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) whereby multiple exposures are ‘fused’ into a single super image using special software.
Others were airbrushed and cloned to remove references to modern living such as traffic lights and double yellow lines with the purpose of creating the look and feel of a bygone era.
Three cameras were used to capture the images depending on the circumstances: a Pentax digital SLR for fine detail, a Panasonic ‘bridge’ camera for the combination of portability and good detail and a Samsung compact for ultimate portability.
Gordon added: “I have used modern techniques to enhance the images and I hope people enjoy looking at the results.
“It’s very fitting that my first exhibition should be hosted in the Old Town House as it was taking pictures of the building in last year’s snow that inspired me to create a collection based on Old Aberdeen.
“I’m delighted that has now been turned into an exhibition.”
The exhibition will run until the end of February and The Old Town House is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Admission is free. Please contact Shona Elliott (s.elliott@abdn.ac.uk) for more details.