Edinburgh Napier University

Hi, I'm Heather and I'm doing the BA Photography course. I'm currently in fourth year. So recently we've been setting up for the degree show and getting prepared for that.

Can you tell us a bit about your Degree Show project?

My project is a documentary about Clune Park. It’s an old shipyard town that’s situated in Post Glasgow and, over the last ten to twenty years has been left completely dormant because of the effects of the shipyard decline in the community.

I became really fascinated by this place about a year ago and have been working on this project since.

There are 430 completely empty flats in Clune park that have fallen into disrepair after the policies brought in by Maggie Thatcher in the 1980s caused the rapid decline of the shipyard industry in Glasgow.

My documentary circulates around a man who used to live there named David. David has a lot of ties, and a lot of history to the place because he grew up there. So, it's a project about exploring the flats and the interiors of basically what was left behind and due to the decline, that happened is a knock on effect from the shipyards going out of service in Glasgow.

How are you feeling about the Degree Show?

I'm actually really excited for it to be honest. I'm feeling really pleased with the work that I've done so far.

I'm grateful that last year I did a lot of the hard work – I think it’s easy to get complacent and think you have a lot of time for the Degree Show but it comes around quickly. So I think I’ve benefitted form starting on my project last semester.

The reason I actually started so early though is because the flats were potentially going to be demolished so that really gave me a push to get started!

But, as for the show itself, I think it's going to be really exciting to display our work to friends, family, and the public, and have that send of from uni.

It’s exciting but scary. It’s scary because we don’t have that safety net anymore, but at the same time, it’s exciting to take the next steps and start a career in the industry.

Why should people come to the Degree Show?

I think people should come to the degree show to see all the emerging artists, and also because it’s going to be so diverse! Not only myself and others doing documentaries, I think Napier gives you a lot of freedom to work on whatever you want – for example we have people doing Paris Cyanotypes, people doing fashion, and there’s also a lot of experimental practices that go into that like film photography as well. So I think coming to our degree show, you'll get a lot from it because no matter who you are, you'll find something you like.