Monday 2 May 2022 The Guardian •
23Unseen work
by Edinburgh’s
master of street
photography
goes on show
Lanre Bakare
Arts and culture correspondentNever-before-seen work by a pho-
tographer who captured life in
Edinburgh and has been compared
with the great Henri Cartier-Bresson
is to go on display at an exhibition in
the city he lived and worked in.
Robert Blomfi eld moved to Edin-
burgh from Yorkshire to study
medicine, while living a second life
as a pioneering street photographer
who shot university students, locals
and the shifting landscape of the
Scottish capital.
The exhibition’s curator, Daryl
Green, said it was “astounding”
that Blomfi eld, described as tak-
ing “ an unobtrusive fl y-on-the-wall
approach ”, has remained relatively
unknown for so long.
“In his work, we sense echoes
of earlier street photographers like
Eug ène Atget and Henri Cartier-
Bresson, and we can discern the rich
attachment to place that we see in
contemporaries such as Robert Frank
and William Klein ,” he said. “As his
vast archive slowly comes into light,
it is clear that Robert was Edinburgh’s
quiet answer to Glasgow’s Oscar Mar-
zaroli , to Paris’s Brassa ï.”
Born in Leeds and raised in Shef-
fi eld, Blomfi eld received his fi rst
camera on his 15th birthday and con-
tinued taking photographs until his
death in December 2020, but his work- which was said to be inspired by
Robert Capa ’s adage “if your pictures
aren’t good enough, you’re not close
enough” – remained largely unseen
during his lifetime.
The Robert Blomfi eld: Student of
Light exhibition at the University of
Edinburgh, where he studied, is the
second major survey of his work and
follows a show at the City Art Centre
in Edinburgh in 2018.
Blomfi eld arrived in Edinburgh to
study medicine in 1956 and took a
camera with him almost everywhere,
even into class, producing shots of
lectures and laboratories that are
described as unique in their access
and composition. He took eight years
to complete a six-year degree, and
stayed in Edinburgh after graduat-
ing in 1964 to start as a junior doctor
at the city’s Royal Infi rmary.
Student of Light focuses on Blom-
fi eld’s time as a student and will
showcase some of his camera equip-
ment. By the mid-1960s, Blomfi eld
was regularly seen with two cam-
eras around his neck , both usually
loaded with black and white fi lm and
fi tted with diff erent lenses, though he
would occasionally shoot colour fi lm.
Robert Blomfi eld: Student of Light
is supported by the Scottish Funding
Council and will run from 6 May
to 1 October at the University of
Edinburgh’s main library▲ Old College,
student battle,
Rectorial
Elections , 1960.
The quirks of
university life
were a typical
subject▲ Students
at Edinburgh
University ready
to take pictures
of their own as
they wait for
Prince Philip to
visit in 1958▼ Blomfi eld
photographed
various city
landmarks,
including this
picture of the
Forth Bridge
taken ‘through
telescope’ in
1965