PHOTO DREAM COME TRUE

Fisherrow Fish Market, Shona McMillan ©

Considering the many photos I've shared in exhibitions and online, (within the last 24 hours) I had joked to friends on Facebook that Karma must be due me a BIG payout. Well, if there is such a thing as Karma - it just came my way "BIG TIME" in the shape of a very special photo I have been fortunate enough to have taken today. A photo connected to the above postcard showing a scene at Fisherrow around 1890... This old postcard, when I bought in 2005, it marked the start of a journey for me which would also touch many others to create RIPPLES  FROM EAST LOTHIAN out AROUND THE WORLD. But first, let me cover the events which brought me full circle back again to Fisherrow, East Lothian and the harbour there today.

I have not written for a while as, since I last wrote, life seems to have been just one big event after another. Working fulltime in project management, of late my personal time for my freelance photo-journalism has been somewhat curtailed. Nevertheless, working in a voluntary, unpaid capacity in my own time, I have managed to maintain my photo and film interests, (if not my writing) and in the last weeks, I have posted a great body of my photographic work (across all my projects) to my Facebook Page: SHONA MCMILLAN CELTIC REFLECTIONS

Recently, my Page reflects my travels in Scotland, Out and About in JUNE and JULY.  My much awaited return trip to IRELAND seeing the WATERBOYS at Waterford's Tall Ships Festival. Playing music in Spiddal and Galway and finally in Ireland, catching up with the exceptional fiddler MARTIN HAYES and the TULLA CEILIDH BAND in during Miltown Malbay's Willie Clancy Week.

Then, after Ireland I had a trip up north to the Tall Ships Festival in Ulapool and there, enoyed the music of Irish band the Sawdoctors. So yes, recently I've had a very strong Celtic influence in my postings and today, I had expected to be back enroute to Ireland, to Co Clare for a week's holiday taking in the Feakle Festival. Yet, IF travelling today, I would have missed the last day of the Musselburgh Festival. However, attending so many COMMUNITY EVENTS in Musselburgh this week, I had thought I'd make the trade off - missing the last day to be in Ireland for a week's music festival but - life is not always as we plan and today, instead, saw me back in Fisherrow on a more important personal journey...

My mum's folks were from Fisherrow, PEOPLE OF THE SEA from the fishing family the Thorburns. My granda' Billy and my great-grandfather Auld Arch' were fisherman and then Fisherrow Harbour Masters, my great-granny Jeannie Ritchie was a fishwife who carried the creel (selling fish from the harbour), my granny Crissie sung in Fisherrow Fishwives Choir, a fine singer like my mum Jean who encouraged me in my own music (as a singer and fiddle player). Indeed, it was the strength of the Fisherrow family connections that set me off on my PEOPLE AND SONGS OF THE SEA journey. And, within that project, the first postcard I ever bought was the old postcard I opened this blog with - the picture showing the women all dressed in their fishwives costumes at the open air fishmarket at Fisherrow harbour (where the crowds gathered today at the end of the Musselburgh Festival Week).

My project to 'celebrate the fishing community' - it gathered momentum in 2006 as my mum fell ill with cancer and after, (for me) it became a sort of legacy project for mum AND the fishing community. Continuing to work on this, I first built up my collection of other people's photographs. But finally, I began to take photos of fisher folk myself and more and more the body of my own work grew. Over time, I also learnt pieces of information which I would try to pull together (as best as I could) to build up a sort of jigsaw picture which I could share with others. One of the things most important to me was the discovery of the names of those people in the old photograph postcard. And through these names - many very happy family connections were rebuilt around the world through Facebook (through sharing my work online, the children descended from the original women in the old photograph, now re-connecting to lost family and friends through the internet, 100+ years on).

In the old postcard, the names of those photographed being L - R:

1 (Christine) Teenie Hamilton Craig
2 Robert Brown
3 Kirsty Pate Hamilton
4 Margaret Thorburn
5 Auld Hooker
6 (Isabella) Bella Ritchie
7 Margaret Williamson
8 (Isabella) Bella Walker
9 Marion Thorburn
10 (Margaret) Maggie Boyle
11 (Margaret) Maggie Elgin
12 (Isabella) Bella Gray
13 Annie Halley
14 (Elizabeth) Betty Watson
15 Nan Christie
16 Jean Walker
17 Kirstie Cunningham
18 Marion Langlands
19 Ailie Gibson
20 (Elizabeth) Lizzie Gibson
21 Ailie Gibson Brown
22 Helen Ritchie

.... and JUST OUT OF THE (CROPPED) POSTCARD SHOT, but on the original photograph, my great granny Jeannie Ritchie who had married my great grandfather Archie Thorburn.

Yes, a photograph of GREAT SIGNIFICANCE to me (and many others). Something I have admired over the years, a photo communicating social history and what a privillege for that photographer to have taken this picture. All the time, me in my own photo efforts, myself constantly pushing and pushing myself to try and improve my own skills so I could respectfully capture the photos of the fisher people as I wanted to - capturing them just as they are/were... And then at today's event - suddenly I saw an opportunity in 2011 for me to bring together in the same place the woman there today in all their beautiful costumes (passed down through Fisherrow's fisher families from generation to generation). History breathing new life today.

There was NOTHING organised about any photo being taken and the women in costume were scattered around the area but as the idea took hold I ran through the crowd to ask people to gather together for a photo. For twenty minutes I coaxed people towards a photo, firstly taking the hands of friends and asking them to follow me through the crowds to the harbour wall (and there I had to make space for a photo to be taken!). The women began to move and then others joined, and then more, and then more - the fishwives coming together through the crowds to make this beautiful photo. Finally together (shouting to everyone to try and look at me at the one time) with only seconds to grab the moment "I DID MY BEST!" Then, back home, I sat this evening and very quietly looked back through the lovely photos of the smiling faces (a moment for posterity).

My photo in 2011, something similar to the postcard I first saw SIX YEARS AGO, the photo which had helped to inspire me in my journey but a photo which I thought I would never ever be able to recreate (as the fishing community numbers grow small and smaller each year...). But here it is in 2011, a wonderful photo at Fisherrow harbour more than a hundred years on. However, my journey is not at an end yet... Now I have the photo taken, my research (detective work) begins to obtain the full name of EVERY single woman captured in the photo today. (My contact details across my photo to try and prompt people to get in touch with others, to get people talking and to get the information back to me so I can give an exact name to EVERY SINGLE one of the women I photographed today).

MY THANKS TO EVERYONE ABOVE
- this photos means everything to me and
I hope it is special for all of you!

And for 'you' reading my blog, I leave a clip of me singing "Fisherrow"
on a track from my PEOPLE & SONGS OF THE SEA ALBUM
 together with my video of my Thorburn family's Fisherrow photos

PLEASE MESSAGE ME IF YOU CAN PROVIDE
ANY DETAILS ON MY PEOPLE OF THE SEA PHOTOS

http://www.shonamcmillan.co.uk

Collecting for the RNLI at Fisherrow Harbour (1930s)

Photograph shows: Second from the right, my mum Jean,
sister Wilma far right & sister Chris with the flag. And other friends

(IF YOU CAN NAME ANYONE ELSE PLEASE GET IN TOUCH)

A BRIDGE TO THE PAST

On the 9th of May I wrote my first "People of the Land" Blog. I explained then how so little was known about my father's family history yet, there seemed a connection to the land - when he and  mum got engaged they holidayed at a farm and enjoyed fishing at a nearby river. In addition, before dad's memories began to drift away, he talked of herding cows to a dairy and a photo showed him carrying milk. In the early stages of dementia, it is true that people can remember memories from childhood but as health decreases the door to the past can close, photos then the only key. 

Interviewed about People of the Land on the radio - afterwards, I took a drive and found myself heading to the only named place I knew. But, in such a large area? I had driven past here before but without any clues. This time, I drew up beside the pub and went in with the total sum of my information: 80+ years ago dad was photographed carrying milk. 60+ years ago him and mum had holidayed here. The staff were very friendly but asked for more information. I explained I knew nothing more, I just had photos of mum and dad fishing. "Ah ha!" was the reply and I was told that the river behind the pub had trout and another recalled hearing that milk was once got from some place outwith the village. Some farm tracks driven up, more conversations were had with folk I met on my way and then I came home to piece together the jigsaw.

                    

Yes, I had found the buildings that had once been the farm.

In addition to the farm discovery, I suddenly recalled

shadows which I had seen on the pool of a burn.

The 2011 shadows from a bridge

linking me to my dad's old photo of the 10th of August 1952





From 2011, I could now look back to 1952

- finally able to link the people in the photo to the specific place

"The 1952 Fishing Expedition"
L-R: Sonya, Minnie, Wullie, Jean (mum) and Nenny

With old photos, some detective work and the kind help of 'strangers' - a bridge to the past has been built. Eighty years ago, Hugh McMillan holidayed here as a boy. Year's later, he took his girlfriend here, Jean Thorburn. A year later they married and then, another ten plus years passed and I arrived. And by then the family holidays to the Sutherland had begun, (to Balnakeil farm, Durness and Kinlochbervie). Yet, looking down the East Lothian farm track to where my folks had fished all these years before - what a similarity between these places, not just in the look and feel of the land but in the friendliness and helpfulness of the people I met as a stranger.

As a child, regularly on holiday in Kinlochbervie, my beloved dog Corrie came from there. And I am left wondering, my dad's first dog - was this where he came from (the similarity I see of the farm building behind?). I'll never know for sure but sometimes I think, these small details don't matter so much as the importance of taking the journey, for me a journey from 2011 to 1952, 1930 and beyond.

My special thanks to all who gave me their time yesterday and now,

I very much look forward to going back there with my fiddle

to enjoy a tune in the pub and to meet new friends!

INSPIRATION 365

Life is about choices. Surely, our most important decisions relate to our usage of time. Technology having the potential to be a curse as well as an asset, self-discipline required to use it to enhance our lives and not let it distract from that which we want to achieve. Harnessing technology, cultural connections can put us in contact with a wider circle of like-minded people who enjoy similar interests and creative pursuits. Through this blog I can share photos and stories in communication with a global circle of people. But all stories need a beginning so, I start my Blog with some background information on myself and my Scottish home, in a scenic location which provides me with inspiration 365 :-)

From Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, I was fortunate to grow up in a house with nearly 360 degree views of Edinburgh and the coast. On one side was the sea, the city buildings from Leith to Portobello and over the sea across the Firth of Forth was Kircaldy in Fife.

The coastline of Portobello and Leith with Arthur Seat behind

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

On the other side, our house looked on to Arthur Seat, an extinct volcano rising up from the centre of Edinburgh. From a certain angle, it's shape like a huge lion at rest and guarding the city below.

Arthur Seat from the Holyrood Park in the centre of Edinburgh

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved 

Built on seven hills, Edinburgh is a beautiful city and also, I loved the rest of Scotland which I saw. Every year I holidayed in the Highlands and enjoyed living and working in Scotland. Yet, I also had a healthy thirst for knowledge and the desire to explore and learn more about the rest of the world. Through music and work in project management, I was fortunate to do a lot of travelling. However, when I came to settle in Inverness (and the years began to pass by) it was then that I experienced the strongest longing for my Edinburgh / East Lothian 'home' which I had left behind.
 

My house in Inverness, the city viewed from across the Moray Firth

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

My house in Inverness had stunning views of the Kessock Bridge and the Moray Firth.  Inverness, for me had been like the Gateway to the road north to Sutherland (my spiritual home in the Highlands). Yet, on a day to day basis, I missed being in Edinburgh, easily able to walk around Arthur Seat or to take a drive to East Lothian and walk along the beautiful beaches in the region's 43 mile coastline.

Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city as viewed from Arthur Seat

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

 

In 2006 I moved home and in my career I developed a new strand as a freelance photo-journalist. The work gave me the flexibility I required to be there for my family, my mum becoming increasingly unwell.  Through my mum "Jean", Jane Ritchie of the Thorburn Fisherrow family, I was descended from the fishing community.

L-R: Wilma, Jean, Billy, Lily, Crissie, Christina and Archie Thorburn

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

My great-grandfather Archie and my granda' Billy had been fishermen who had gone on to be Harbour Masters at Fisherrow. My great-granny Jane Ritchie Thorburn (Jeannie) had worked as a fishwife and my granny Crissie, a fine singer like my mum, had sung in Fisherrow Fishwives choir, their love of music being passed on to myself.

Celebrating her 80th birthday, my mum, Jean Ritchie Thorburn McMillan

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

On my return back home, my mum had asked for a special request for her 80th birthday - she asked that I produce a project to celebrate the fishing community. A huge task, I gasped when she asked and gave all the reasons why it would be such enormous work but she smiled and said "but you could make a start and, if you did your best, that would be good enough..." So, I began with mum's stories, old photos and then, I met with other relatives and fisher folk. News of what I was doing led to an invitation to write People of the Sea, an article for East Lothian Life magazine to commemorate the 14th October, 125 year anniversary of the Eyemouth fishing disaster in 1881, when 189 fishermen died. My own life changed whilst researching the story, I found my great-grandfather had survived being swept off a boat but, in the here and now, my mum was diagnosed with cancer. I dedicated the article to my mum and just  days after it was published she lost her fight to cancer.    

After my mum's loss, I continued and my subject archive grew to over 500 old images and 3,000 photos.  Hearing about my collection, I was invited to stage an exhibition at Port Seton library.  The exhibition coincided with what would have been mum's birthday. It was an amazing opening night with an impromptu ceilidh. Over eight hundred people came to visit the exhibition and more libraries invited me to exhibit. I believed the demand for my project was because the community was looking to come together, my work was a catalyst for this and so, I formed an ambitious plan. For the Year of Homecoming 2009, I saw a partnership project with all the libraries along the coast, other organisations and community groups brought together through exhibitions and events - a People of the Sea May-Dec tour in 14 fishing communities from Edinburgh, to Eyemouth, to Anstruther. I also wanted Celtic music in the project and to involve as many as I could through a compilation album 'People and Songs of the Sea.' Aswell as professional artists from Scotland and Ireland, I wanted to involve 100 local fisher folk. I saw a unique recording of the fishing hymn 'Will Your Anchor Hold' recorded at the Auld Church of Scotland Kirk in Cockenzie.

2009 Article in East Lothian News

 

The album was produced in association with Greentrax on their label http://www.greentrax.com/ It was launched together with my Edinburgh to Eyemouth exhibitions and over 10,000 people visited. Then, on Hogmanay 2009, I was telephoned from Chicago to be told that People and Songs of the Sea had just won Radio Liveireland's Compendium Album of the Year 2010. The news was broadcast live on air from the station's studios in America and Ireland and over the internet the story went around the world. For me, listening at home in Edinburgh, how very special was the moment I heard our 2009 recording in East Lothian being played back to listeners from Liveireland in Chicago, Dublin and beyond.

My house in Inverness, the city viewed from across the Moray Firth

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

 

Moving back to Edinburgh, reconnecting with my home, a legacy project emerged from my family's cultural connections to the fishing community. On the album's front cover, as a wee girl dressed in the traditional costume of a Fisherrow fisher lass was my mum - photographed with family and friends, collecting at Fisherrow Harbour for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which relatives have served in and friends from the past and today still do.

People and Songs of the Sea album (CD from http://www.greentrax.com) 
Cover: Jean Thorburn, 2nd right, Wilma, 1st right, Christina holding flag

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

The last years have been a pivotal time for me and seen the rekindling of old friendships and the building of new ones. My photography, music, writing and art - all benefitting from the exhibition feedback and constructive criticism from my sites eg:

Facebook http://facebook.com/shonamcmillan.celticreflections

Myspace http://www.myspace.com/shona_m_mcmillan

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ShonaMcMillan

My website: http://www.shonamcmillan.co.uk/

As a musician who learnt to play by ear, just as the music of many others helped me in learning to play the fiddle, so too I feel fortunate to have benefitted from a growing circle of artistic friends, their art contributing to an outward rippling pool of creativity. I am influenced by the creative outputs of people like John Bellany, Mark I'Anson, Doug Roberston, Michael McVeigh, Heidi Wickham, Alastair Cook, Richard Demarco and Julie Thompson. And then, there are photographers such as Laurie Campbell and film-maker Paul Bellany whose input I have found to be invaluable.

So many great artists exist, setting my own creative offerings adrift on to the internet can be daunting. Yet, I am heartened when I recall wise words said to me by friend. In Scotland, on tour in January 2009, Cape Breton fiddle player Jerry Holland spoke about his life, on those who play professionally and on those who may be early in their playing of music but find much happiness in playing and sharing music with others. Jerry said "It's not about being THE BEST, it's about being the best you can be so YOU enjoy music and your journey through life. If others enjoy your music, then all the better for that but its not a competition". Like my mum would say: "do your best and in doing your best, you can know you've done well enough."

Enjoying a laugh: Jerry Holland in Edinburgh, January 2009 with myself

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved

In setting up my Blog, I have selected a special photo from Fisherrow, a picture I took at the start of January 2010. To be exact, the photo was taken on the day that the local press invited me there for a photograph in connection with my 2010 People and Songs of the Sea award. This most beautiful sunset was, for me, a very fitting end to a day which has seen the close of one chapter and the beginning of a new one in my life's ever changing journey.

Article in Berwickshire News, January 2010

What joy I feel when a sunset paints the sky like a huge illuminated canvas of colour. A unique materpiece by Mother Nature, only there for a few short inspirational moments before darkeness and a period of rest before a new day dawns again.  In the bigger picture of the universe, our lives are gone in the blink on an eye. It seems so important to embrace how precious time is and to make the most of our lives. From Edinburgh and a lover of East Lothian's coast like myself, famous author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "there is no duty in life that we so underrate as the duty of being happy".

For me, there is never a sunset or sunrise I see which does not make me feel glad to be alive. Such times bring me happiness and, if I can photograph nature's special moments and share these times with others, to smile and pass on that feeling of happiness - that seems to me to be something well worth doing. If you have enjoyed visiting my blog, I hope you post a comment and come back again. I also hope that  you will join me in rippling out 'positivity' from your own life's journey - not letting your talents be stifled and kept in the dark but seek to bring them out in to the light, to share with others, family and friends. I hope in life you SMILE :-D and PASS IT ON!

The Janreen at Aberlady, enroute home to Port Seton at sunrise

Text and Images © Shona McMillan. All Rights Reserved