I have posted some images of Ian MacKenzie’s funeral at the following site: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=146446&id=659922299&l=105d52ab6d
Lowering the Willow Coffin, Ian MacKenzie Burial at Ardearg, 12 February 2010; photo by Gonzalo Mazzei
Following a meeting last month with David Nicolson (Development Manager at the University of Edinburgh), it was suggested that I seek the advice of my own solicitor, Mr Bowman (at Bonar MacKenzie) in order to set up the Ian MacKenzie Trust. My appointment with Mr Bowman was last week and his advice was that setting up and administration of a trust would eat up a large portion of the money donated.
So, we have opted to go the route of a Memorial Fund so that the contributions will go toward the intended purpose. I have called a meeting for 3rd March where we will discuss strategies and draw up an action plan. My first thought is to mount an Ian MacKenzie Memorial Exhibition in Edinburgh (possibly for the end of July 2010). I have been granted permission to go to his workplace one day per week in order to go through his vast store of images and select a short-list of pieces for display.
If this exhibition proves to be cost-effective, we hope to tour it round Scotland, inviting people in each area to bring their own ethnological photographs to be copied and stored in the School of Scottish Studies Archives. This was Ian’s dream: to expand the archives and to have representative photographs from all regions of Scotland stored in Edinburgh.
I would like to thank all of you who have made donations to the fund. I am currently looking into creating a limited edition print of one of Ian’s most beautiful works: a triptych of landscape images from the Western Isles as a gift for those who have contributed £50 ($100) or more. If you are eligible for this gift but your donation was anonymous, please get in touch to let me know: talithamac@googlemail.com
Photo by Gonzalo Mazzei: Triptych by Ian MacKenzie; Wedding Photo by Alex Spence
The new date for Ian MacKenzie’s funeral is now confirmed: Friday 1.45 PM, 12 February, at
Church of Scotland Parish Church, Inverinate, Kintail
Burial at Ardearg Cemetery, Ratagan.
Soup and sandwiches to follow at Kintail Lodge Hotel. Donations of home-baking gratefully received.
The wearing of colour is requested. No flowers at the site please, with the exception of sprigs of holly.
The Ian MacKenzie Trust is being set up and any contributions will be gratefully accepted. Please watch this site for more information.
Two buses are being organised, one travelling from Edinburgh and the other from Inverness:
Departing Edinburgh at 7.00 AM
Departing Inverness at 10.30 AM
Please watch this space for further details.
Any queries to Talitha MacKenzie at talithamac@googlemail.com
Ardearg Burial Ground, photo by Ian MacKenzie, 2008
Due to road closures and severe weather conditions, the funeral of Ian MacKenzie has been postponed.
Please watch this site for details of the new date and future travel arrangements, etc.
We apologise for the inconvenience and hope that you are all safe and warm, wherever you are.
Best wishes for Celtic Christmas!
Trees in Snow, Photo by Ian MacKenzie
At 11.00 PM on Sunday, 20 December, Ian MacKenzie passed away peacefully with his family round him.
A funeral service will take place at 1.30 PM on Thursday, 7th January, at:
Church of Scotland Parish Church, Inverinate, Kintail
Burial at Ardearg Cemetery, Ratagan (2.30 PM). Soup and sandwiches to follow at Kintail Lodge Hotel (3/3.30 PM). Donations of home-baking gratefully received.
The wearing of colour is requested. No flowers at the site please, with the exception of sprigs of holly.
The Ian MacKenzie Trust is being set up and any contributions will be gratefully accepted. Please watch this site for more information.
Two buses are being organised, one travelling from Edinburgh and the other from Inverness:
Departing Edinburgh at 7.00 AM
Departing Inverness at 10.30 AM
To find out if there are spaces available, please contact
Edinburgh: Margaret Mackay on 0141 221 4590; 0131 650 4167
Inverness: Dougie MacKenzie on 01463 222 112
You are advised to bring a flask & food with you on the bus.
Loch Duich and Five Sisters of Kintail. Photo by Glenys MacMillan
Strathdearn & Wester Ross on 12 - 14th of October, 2007. The last outing for ZenBends on the Moray Fund Award and I was keen to get up into the Highlands to record some roads that I knew well from my childhood days in Strathdearn, Inverness-shire.
The hired car at the end of the public road in Coignafearn, Strathdearn.
Fieldwork report with details of roads filmed to follow soon . . .
The wet weather kept me from the Highlands so it was off to points nearer in the Borders. Set out on Saturday the 18th of August and headed down to Innerleithen. Spent a wet but relaxing time on the single-track road from Innerleithen to Walkerburn. Watched herons by the river Tweed and in bare old pine trees on the riverbank.
Filmed the road later on before heading east towards Kelso. Next day recorded the section of the B699 where it skirts the Marchmont, just outside Kelso. Then it was on to Selkirk up the Yarrow Valley turning off at the junction of the B709 from Mountbenger over the hills to Traquair, turning left onto the B7062 on up to Peebles.
Although drawn to Mull, I ended up in Highland Perthshire to record a number of roads that I had not previously explored and was keen to see. Managed to persuade Talitha to come along and be my helper which was delightful - so much better than working on my own. As the weather forecast was not promising, I built in a number of related things that I wanted to check out - one was the Drovers exhibition at the Crieff Visitor Centre and the other was the play ‘Passing Places’ by Stephen Greenhorn in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. As it turned out, the weather was kind to us, but both of the other attractions were very useful and interesting - the exhibition for historical information on roads and routes in the highlands, and the play for an interesting perspective by a lowland playwright on adventures in the highlands and for interesting views on driving on highland single-track roads. Our few days in Perthshire were followed (after a night back in Edinburgh) by a trip down to Selkirk in the borders, via small back roads. If the weather is okay for this weekend, I fully intend to make further trips in the borders to investigate some of the smaller, out of the way roads.
Finally, my first fieldwork of 2007 on ZenBends! I had just finished a fieldwork task for the European Ethnological Research Centre in Strathdearn and took advantage of being up north to add on two days in Lochbroom, Coigach & Assynt, and en route, a farm road on the Black Isle, just north of Inverness. The weather was good and it was great to try out the camera with the new items attached. Made several video films and a number of stills using the new Nikon D200 - some of the images and fieldwork notes to follow soon. Next trip is scheduled for the first week in July and at the moment I am drawn to the Island of Mull which according to the map, seems to have many miles of single-track road.
I had planned to get north for a week of fieldwork starting on the 17th of May but the prospect of wind and rain (as forecast by the met office) changed my mind, so I have, reluctantly, suspended my first planned trip of 2007. Will reschedule for a time when the skies are looking brighter. Feel a bit of a fairweather wimp but on the other hand I want the best weather & light conditions to make my single-track road video recordings.
My outstanding items of equipment have arrived and I now have a matte-box with UV & polarising filters. Took a bit of time to get the correct adaptor ring to fit the matte-box to the Sony’s small lens (37mm). Will be interesting to see how it performs on the roof of the car when driving and filming - I have some concerns that the ‘top flag’ visor will flip up in the wind - may have to be the matte-box on its own? I also have a rain cover for the camera - an essential item for working in the Highlands. Pic of the modified Sony HVR- A1E to follow.