Keith Allardyce
“From a young age I have been familiar with the work of Keith Allardyce as a well-known and highly respected member of the artistic community in Orkney. His perfectly composed photographs effortlessly and naturally draw you in to explore a world full of character, history and soul which he captures so beautifully. Every time I look at his work I see something new! Keith was not just a exceptionally talented photographer, he understood and truly connected emotionally, culturally and artistically with his subjects. I for one am deeply grateful that we are lucky enough to have the legacy of his enduring pictures. Thankyou Keith for so beautifully representing through your lens the Orkney I remember growing up. Thank you too to Ikuku Tsuchiya and Stromness Museum for allowing me to use a tiny proportion of his work in my project. I highly recommend you explore his work further.”
Jennifer Wrigley, March 2023
Born in Ashington, Northumberland and based in Orkney for many years Keith Allardyce Hobbs was a gifted photographer who devoted many years of his life to promoting the culture and history of the Orkney Islands.
On moving to Orkney in 1974, he continued to pursue his lifelong photographic interests alongside his position as an RSPB summer warden and later as a lighthouse keeper with the Northern Lighthouse Board including being based at Suleskerry.
‘At Scotland’s Edge’ was commissioned in 1986 by Scotland’s Lighthouse Museum to recreate Keith’s survey of the lights and the people who operated them, culminating in his first book. This is a beautiful, hand on heart portrait of the life of a lighthouse keeper, told only as a keeper could. It resulted in a second book ‘Scotland’s Edge Revisited’ in 1998.
In 1989, he was commissioned by the Stromness Community Council in Orkney to produce a body of photographic archive documenting a year in the life of Stromness in collaboration with Orkney’s Museums Officer, Bryce Wilson and Orcadian writer, George Mackay Brown. The result in 1991 was a timeless and precious book, a record of life in Orkney at the time ‘Sea Haven: Stromness in the Orkney Islands.’
He went on to publish a further four books: ‘Found I’ and ‘Found II’ – portraits and stories of present-day beachcombers with their found objects – and ‘Silent I’ and ‘Silent II’ – exploring and documenting the abandoned buildings with accompanying stories by Orcadian historian and storyteller, Tom Muir.
Keith sadly passed away aged 70 in March 2018. He is still greatly missed but his immense contribution to photography, the arts and Orkney will be his enduring legacy.
