Fife photographer realises 50-year dream with exhibition of fusion photography

Photographer Jim Duffy when he started out in his 20s, and now.

When Jim Duffy first picked up a camera, experimenting with photographs meant hours in the dark room, all sorts of chemicals, and no second chances at getting it right.

The 75-year-old, from Dalgety Bay, worked as a portrait photographer 50 years ago, capturing images of the likes of boxed Jim Watt, comedian Andy Cameron, and the Scotland 1978 World Cup team.

Jim's fusion image of The Kelpies. — Jim’s fusion image of The Kelpies.

Unfortunately, the erratic nature of the work meant that Jim – a father of four – had to abandon his photography for a more steady career.

But in his retirement his passion has been reignited and technology has allowed him to become more creative with his images – and this time around there’s always an undo button if something isn’t quite right.

A 50-year-dream

Jim has now realised a 50-year dream to launch his own exhibition called FUSION, which is now on display at Rothes Halls in Glenrothes.

“I’ve been determined to do something with this since I was a youngster,” he said.

“I’ve been knocking on the doors for the past few years. Before this came along the best I had got was a local ice cream parlour!

“Unless you show it to people you don’t get any criticism, good or bad – do people actually like this?

“When you get photographs into digital format, you can do all sorts of stuff, it’s absolutely limitless. It’s all down to your imagination. I can’t get over it, it’s like I’ve come out of the Stone Age!

“You’re not sitting in a dark room, you’re sitting on a computer in the middle of your living room playing with these images and flipping them backwards and forwards and trying this, trying that and if it doesn’t work, you can undo or delete.”

Originally from Falkirk but now living in Fife, the grandfather worked as a freelance photographer in his twenties.

Previously a primary school teacher, he got his first job in a studio during a four-year stint in New Zealand before moving back home and working out of Scottish Studios in Glasgow.

One memorable job was photographing the Scotland players before they headed off to the 1978 World Cup for House of Fraser, who had sponsored their suits.

Jim recalls: “I was there on my tod with the full team in their suits and had to come up with an idea to make a decent looking photograph, rather than just the straight forward looking straight at the camera. They were pleased with the results. That was a memorable moment for me.

“You’ve got to take charge of the situation and actually organise it and make them feel comfortable so that I get a comfortable photograph. It’s really exciting stuff. I would recommend anybody, any youngster, to get into a career in photography.”

Fusion photography

Jim’s new images see him fuse and overlay photographs from a variety of sources – including his own back catalogue to create a series of unique and surreal images.

These photographs, alongside some of his more traditional landscape and portrait work, form the basis of his exhibition.

He hopes to inspire others to take care of their images and get creative.

“I have this theory that everybody should be a photographer and that’s happened particularly since mobile phones with cameras,” he said.

“If you take all these photographs, for goodness sake actually do something with them, organise them. The number of times relatives have said they’ve run out of space on the camera and need to take photographs over the old ones.

“Don’t do that, these are old memories! Just download it to your computer and organise it.

“I couldn’t be doing with taking photographs and not keeping them or recording them or showing them back to people. That’s my mission in life – to get people to organise their photographs so they get full benefit.”

FUSION by Jim Duffy, Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, until April