Photographs by Robert Forbes, Ethel Forbes, John Forbes, Ross Forbes and Imogen Forbes
Family Album
This is an exhibition of the Forbes family photograph albums from the 19th to the 21st century. As a family of photographers, Robert Forbes ran a professional photographic studio in Edinburgh whilst his wife, Ethel Forbes, produced portraiture and experimented with colour painting on photographic prints. Their son, John Forbes, was a photojournalist and this exhibition shows pictorial documentation of both his family and working life during the 20th century. Having inherited a passion for photography from his grandparents and father, Ross Forbes is interested in portrait photography in which he focuses his lens on his beloved family and friends. The exhibition includes photographs of Imogen, Ross’s wife, growing from a baby girl to a mother of three.
The idea for this exhibition came from my investigation into the development of art in the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Just a decade ago art within the Trust was uncharted territory. I learned that it was Ross Forbes, then Director of Policy and Communication, who introduced art to the Trust and through his vision and passion for art in healing, the first art project Images of Trust was born. The art projects that have followed, including my own research project, would not have happened without Ross’s pioneering work.
This exhibition is a tribute to Ross Forbes, who paved the way for me to have this valuable opportunity to explore the potential of healing through art. I am grateful to Ross for his generosity and trust in allowing me to curate the archive of these precious photographs. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to look into the albums of the Forbes family. By being able to touch and select these pictures spanning three generations, as a photographer myself, I have been overwhelmed by the historic moments and the memories held within these photographs.
Poyan Yee
Artist-curator
January 2010
