★★
As you step into the small attic room of the Edinburgh Photographic Society, you’d be forgiven for thinking we were seeing a collection of portraits that spoke to a larger exhibition. Sadly, this is it. Not that small can’t be beautiful. Cathal McNaughton’s camera has managed to capture a symmetry between his subjects. Perhaps this uniformity reflects that each of the sitters has Haemochromatosis, a condition where the levels of iron build up in a person to toxic levels. I must admit my ignorance of the condition, and it was here that the exhibition succeeds, in its education, and putting faces to this complicated jumble of syllables.
McNaughton’s sparse portraits puts each subject against a black backdrop, with a light so bright, a ring of white is reflected in each pair of eyes. It was this ratio that gave the collection its spark. There is one outlier, Rita, who is lit with a red glow, a film noir gap of light across the eyes, almost like in Blade Runner, stands out amongst the others.
Beyond this, the exhibition felt lacking. It’s admirable that Haemochromatosis UK teamed up with award winning photojournalist Cathal McNaughton, a perfect choice, considering his work covering the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh, he does bring a stark reality to the condition. But for all it’s star quality, the exhibition has seemingly been thrown together without any ceremony, leaving it dulled and uninspiring.
We are Overloaded is at Sandy Cleland Room at Edinburgh Photographic Society until August 24th.
