Still Glasgow

An extensive new exhibition which has photography at its core and looks at Glasgow, past and present.

Still Glasgow, comprising over 80 works, showcases well-known photographs of the city drawn from Glasgow Life Museums’ collection alongside other, lesser-known works, some of which explore how artists work with the photographic medium and the city of Glasgow within their practice. 

Some photographs on display have not been exhibited since their acquisition by Glasgow Life Museums, including Alan Dimmick’s portrait of rock band Franz Ferdinand, and David Eustace’s Buskers Portfolio from 1993. 

Fittingly, the exhibition opens in the closing months of Glasgow 850, the year-long celebration of the city’s 850th birthday, and ahead of GoMA’s 30th anniversary in 2026.

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Still Glasgow initially emerged from a conversation between GoMA Curator/Producer Katie Bruce and Malcolm Dickson, Director of Glasgow gallery Street Level Photoworks, after a visit to Glasgow Museums Resource Centre to look at works about the city in photographs held there. 

From this early list of key works, the exhibition has expanded – for instance, to include moving image, with Roderick Buchanan’s film Gobstopper (1999), which riffs on the Glaswegian childhood game of trying to hold your breath while going through the Clyde Tunnel. It also explores the way in which artists use the photographic medium, including work by Alasdair Gray, as well as photos of artists at work, such as Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan’s Easels, and Oscar Marzaroli’s portrait of painter Joan Eardley in her Glasgow Townhead studio.  

Alongside well-known names – including Linda McCartney, David Eustace, Bert Hardy, and Oscar Marzaroli – it gives space to other photographers and experiences, and other perspectives on the city, as documented through groups like Glendale Women’s Café, and Romano Lav in the Southside of Glasgow, and through Iseult Timmerman’s images of the Red Road Flats before they were demolished in 2015. It also highlights work by women artists, often over-shadowed by better-known images of Glasgow taken by male photographers. Notable amongst these is photographic panels from the groundbreaking installation What’s It to You? by video artists Stansfield/Hooykaas (1975).

As it continues into 2026, Still Glasgow will be part of a public programme celebrating GoMA’s 30th anniversary.