Turnout of over 100 at Nucleus for talk on Wick photographic collection
An illustrated talk about Wick's historic Johnston photographic collection attracted an audience of more than 100 to Nucleus.
It was the first in a series of four presentations being organised by the Wick Society, the town's voluntary heritage group, and Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives.
There was standing room only at the back of the archive centre's exhibition space on Wednesday night as Ian Leith, a Wick Society trustee, told the story of the Johnston family of photographers whose huge body of work ranged from studio portraits to classic images of the herring industry.
Fergus Mather, from the society's photographic section, was on hand to answer questions.
Mr Leith said: "It was a highly successful evening. Lots of people turned out and seemed quite happy with it.
"It shows that there is a considerable interest in the Johnston photographic collection."
In his talk, Mr Leith explained that Alexander Johnston was an artistically minded young man who by 1863 had set up in business as a photographer. He told how the collection had come into the care of the Wick Society and outlined the work that had gone into digitising more than 40,000 images.
Forthcoming talks at Nucleus will be about Wick Heritage Museum (February 15), the boat section (March 14) and the oral history project Wick Voices (March 21).
Mr Leith added: "The Wick Society has four sections, so we thought this would be an opportunity to talk about and demonstrate each of these sections."
