Norman McBeath is a photographer, printmaker and member of the Royal Scottish Academy. The National Portrait Galleries in London, Edinburgh and Canberra have over seventy of his portraits in their collections. Portraits held in the National Portrait Gallery, London can be seen here.

This photograph is from an exhibition of new work, a collaboration with the writer Melissa McCarthy, called Exceptional Subjects.

One of the things the work explores is the way our perception flexes and makes new meanings depending on the circumstance. Here I've made a study of objects in my studio, part of a collection built up over a number of years. While these are all connected to vision, the eye and the process of looking - with many linked to the early stages of photography - they are no longer tied by their name or defined by context. They become subjects in their own right.

The theme of perception also underpins Melissa McCarthy’s lateral and imaginative responses to the photographs. She considers objects in a new light, exploring changing senses of perspective and distance - whether stepping back in time or voyaging far away.

Exceptional Subjects is showing at the new Studies in Photography Gallery, 6 William Street, Edinburgh EH3 7NH, 5th April - 3rd May 2025, Wednesday - Saturday 12 noon - 5pm.
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CURRENT

SURFERS PARADISE: Home of the Arts, Surfers Paradise Australia. Portrait of the poet Linton Kwesi Johnson on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London. 'Writers Revealed', "Treasures from the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London" 12th April - 3rd August 2025.

EDINBURGH: Royal Scottish Academy, 199th Annual Open Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh. 3rd May - 8th June 2025

RECENT

GDAŃSK: Academy of Fine Arts, Gdańsk, Poland. Showing with Prism Print International alongside leading printmakers from eighteen countries, 26th March - 3rd April 2025

EDINBURGH: National Portrait Gallery, Celebrating 40 Years of Scotland's Photography Collection, until 16th March 2025

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