Gus Wylie’s association with the Hebrides as photographer goes back thirty years and has been a significant force in the shaping and development of his creative output. This book is the third publication to feature his monochrome work there (the others being The Hebrides, and The Patterns of the Hebrides). It consists of 151 images taken by Gus over the last three decades, including a number from his most recent photographic essay on North and South Uist.
Described by Michael Russell as ‘the best modern photographer of the Western Isles’, Wylie’s images capture the bleak beauty and remoteness of the islands. With an introductory essay by broadcaster and writer Finlay Macleod, a Lewisman whom Gus has known for many years and who has accompanied him on many of his expeditions across the islands The Hebrideans is a remarkable personal and intimate tribute to a landscape and people with whom Wylie has a deep empathy, and encapsulates with rare perception the unique character of the Hebridean spirit.
Gus Wylie is acclaimed as a leading exponent of monochrome photography and has published a number of books on the Hebrides. He trained as a fine artist and gradated from the School of Painting of the Royal College of Art in 1960. He taught Fine Art and Photography for several years and in 1981 he received the Observer Award for documentary photography for his ‘Ted’s, Rockers, and Bikers’ series. Whilst teaching at the Royal College of Art in 1990 he was awarded a PhD in Cultural History, and is currently teaching at the University of the Arts, London.
Finlay MacLeod is a Lewisman and he has known and worked with Gus Wylie for over 30 years. He is a Gaelic writer and broadcaster and has also been involved in education and publishing. Trained as a psychologist, he has lived and worked in Lewis for most of his life and his abiding and unshakable obsession is anything and everything to do with his native island. Among his many antipathies are colour photography and photographic books that don’t allow the photograph to speak for itself.
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