Sam Laughlin:
Gathering Light
2 February – 4 May 2025
Dawyck Botanic Garden
Gathering Light is the first solo exhibition in Scotland for artist and photographer Sam Laughlin. The exhibition is the first public opportunity to view Laughlin’s new series of large format black and white photographs, produced during his 2024 Wild Heart artist residency, run by Connecting Threads in partnership with Borders Forest Trust.
Taking place at Dawyck Botanic Garden, Gathering Light showcases a selection of the experimental photographic works produced by Laughlin in response to the Wild Heart, a landscape of diverse upland habitats in the South of Scotland, currently undergoing a programme of ecological restoration thanks to Borders Forest Trust.
Laughlin was the Wild Heart artist in residence from June to September 2024. During that time, he immersed himself in the area’s developing ecologies by living off-grid in the Wild Heart.
The exhibition title draws a parallel between photography and photosynthesis: both camera and leaves offer ways of gathering light. As he responded to the area’s evolving habitat mosaic, Laughlin was especially drawn to themes of light, water, growth and time.
By focussing on small details and utilising a diverse range of techniques and methodologies, Laughlin uses photography to represent not only the land itself, but also the changes slowly unfolding at differing physical and temporal scales, linked to the seasons, cycles and processes in nature.
Location
Dawyck Botanic Garden
Stobo, Peebles, Scottish Borders EH45 9JU
Exhibition opening hours
2nd February - 4th May
Monday - Sunday, 10am - 4pm
Sam Laughlin, Solstice (18 Hours of Light in Dairy Wood) from Gathering Light (2024)
"It has been a privilege to spend so much time in landscapes being restored to their wild, forested glory. That people should value my response to such places and support me as I live and work in them, was really a dream come true."
To hear more from Sam about his experiences living off-grid in The Wild Heart, read his Residency Reflections.
Sam Laughlin, Untitled (Corehead) #2 from Gathering Light (2024)
Sam Laughlin, Dairy Wood (Ericstane) #2 from Gathering Light (2024)
