Interview: Roddy Martine, photographer

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 19:47

RODDY Martine is a familiar face on the Edinburgh scene, thanks, in a large part, to a career that's found him editing, or writing for publications such as The Scotsman, The Edinburgh Evening News, The Herald, The Sunday Times, and Scottish Field, to name just a few.

• Roddy Martine. Picture: TSPL

Early on, one of Martine's editors advised him to keep a camera to hand at all times, and the happy result all these years later, is a suitcase bulging with thousands of negatives depicting the great and the good, the celebrated and the infamous. Now, a selection of those images – plus some brand new portraits of Edinburgh movers and shakers taken over the past few weeks – are on exhibition for the very first time at Henderson's.

It's something of a homecoming, for Martine first frequented the family-run Edinburgh institution back in the 1960s. "In those days, Edinburgh didn't have all the wine bars, so we used to go to the Demarco Gallery and the Traverse Theatre, and Henderson's. When I published my first book, The Swinging Sporran, in 1972, I did all the drawings of country dancing for it, and had a little exhibition in the art gallery."

The exhibition came about after Juliet Henderson saw some of Martine's photos at the home of Graham Croanbee. "About 1979, I had a flat in the West End and one of my lodgers had an annoying habit of borrowing my overcoats and losing them. He said, 'My friend Graham has a very good line in overcoats,' and this chap rang and said, 'I can get you a new overcoat for nothing, on the condition that you take my photograph.'

"It was his fortieth birthday, and I took all these ridiculous photographs of him posing in his flat and gave him the negatives and prints afterwards and didn't think anything more about it. Juliet, apparently, had seen them and suggested the exhibition."

Martine insists these are snapshots. "I would never presume to set myself out as a professional."

Many were snapped at media events and private parties, including his own. One such is a sneering portrait of Peter Firth, interrupted mid-argument.

"These pictures capture bits of history, like my photo of six Edinburgh Film Festival directors, who happened to be having breakfast together at The Witchery. By carrying a little camera around, you're able to seize the moment."

• Henderson's Vegetarian Restaurant and Arts Venue presents Scenes from a Life, by Roddy Martine. The exhibition opens with a private view on Sunday 1 August. For more information about the exhibit, or to buy a limited-edition print from the exhibition, visit www.thehendersongallery.com or write to: [e-mail] The exhibition is sponsored by Highland Park whisky.

Dame Barbara Cartland

I AM proud of this because you have a Highland landscape and people fishing, and in the foreground – Barbara Cartland! The family she married into had a sporting lodge near Helmsdale, and they went every autumn for about 60 years.

It was The Scotsman that sent me in the first place – Magnus Linklater asked me to interview Barbara. The moment I walked in she said, "Oh, good, it's a gent!" Though I don't know what she meant by that. She was that coquettish type of woman who emerged out of the 1920s – very prim on one level but incredibly flirtatious and tactile. I had a hilarious time with her at a restaurant on the High Street in Helmsdale which was called La Mirage, if you can believe it. She said, "This woman thinks she's me." And the woman who ran La Mirage had blonde hair and giant black eyelashes and wore pink or scarab blue.

She invited me to the premier of a film called Ace of Hearts made from one of her books, in a really seedy cinema in Soho. We were given pink champagne and smoked salmon sandwiches, and saw this amazingly ridiculous film, which had all the great figures of the British cinema – Michael York, Geraldine Chaplin, Billie Whitelaw – and you sat there, bathed in this film's banality.

That was Barbara: she was completely up front, she was a great show person who knew that most of what she did was absolutely ridiculous.

And she was very clever. In 1992, in her 91st year, I asked how she'd like to be remembered and she said as somebody who campaigned for the rights of gypsy children to attend schools, for women to be paid to stay home after childbirth, for designing the aeroplane-towed glider, for designing wallpaper, and not just for being someone who wore pink.

I remember coming across a tourist bus and it was like seeing Madonna in the Yukon, they were completely gobsmacked: "Oh for godsakes, it's Barbara Cartland!" They all queued for autographs and then we got into the back of her white BMW and she said, "Now enough about me; let's talk about you." And she was curious. She was a darling and great fun and I became very fond of her. "

Joanna Lumley

THIS was after her success as Purdy, on The New Avengers, and before going on to star in Sapphire and Steel, and she came to Edinburgh in 1978, to officially open a car exhaust showroom in Leith Walk. I went along and took photographs and we had lunch afterwards. I saw her last year, and reminded her of this and she said, "Oh my god, why do we DO these things? Well, actually I do know why. In those days, anything that kept the wolf from the door!" I felt slightly guilty about recycling these photographs, but she looks stunning in them. I've sent her a copy of the picture. She's a fabulous person and the lovely thing about her is that you get what you see.

Billy Connolly

THIS snapshot captures a sad bit of history. During the Edinburgh Festival of 1979, Tim Willis, then editing the Edinburgh University magazine, Festival Times, asked me to go to the Traverse Theatre where Billy Connolly was performing in Tom McGrath's play, Animal.

The Castle Trades Mission, which was the old hostel, was about to be closed down, and when I told Billy I wanted a picture, he said: "Come take a photo of me and my pals."

It was a hostel for the down and outs, and all the inmates had been chucked out and were standing around looking a bit lost. They were just chucked into the street. That's where all the problems with people dossing down in doorways started. I think they put some of them up in replacement hostels, but they were much more regimented, and if there was any suspicion of trouble-making or drugs or anything, they didn't let you in. Most of these guys were pretty elderly and it was rather tragic.

The Rt Hon The Earl of Elgin & Kincardine, KT, Chief of the Name of Bruce

LORD ELGIN is such a character! He was Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland twice and has pursued many varied public duties, and always says, "Robert the Bruce's family descend from MINE."

I took this photograph last year. He's one of these great figures in Scotland that you kind of forget about because he's always been there, doing all these public roles. He's the most lovely man. I felt this photograph captured his character. He's a very, very amusing man who has got a sharp, clever tongue.

I remember Magnus Linklater and some other chaps were at lunch with him and one of them said: "You are the Earl of Elgin and a descendant of Robert the Bruce and you're the chief of a Scottish clan, but I've never seen you wear a kilt."

And Elgin studied them for a moment and said: "Well you see the thing is, I had my knees blown off in my tank during the war and it's not a very pretty sight." And I saw these other people look really uncomfortable and embarrassed and Elgin sat there going, "Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh." He knows how to go for the jugular.

Ewan McGregor with the McGregor Pipe Band

THAT'S Ewan on the drum, and his father Jim in front of him. At a dinner in Fife I found myself sitting next to Carol and Jim McGregor, Ewan's parents, who told me about the band, made up exclusively of 16 members of their family. I was planning to attend Tartan Week 2000 in New York, and they were taking part. Carol rang and invited me to a rehearsal at Morrison's Academy in Crieff, saying, "Be sure and bring your camera. I'd love it if you'd take some photographs."

When I arrived, I overheard Ewan's aunt saying she'd seen him on television and that he had looked "scunnered". "You'd be, too, if you had a hundred photographers flashing at you," he replied.

It's a family pipe band. They've had it for years. Ewan's always been in it, playing the drums, with his father and his uncles. I thought that shot was interesting, seeing the family together. That's the other thing about Ewan and the McGregors – when he's with them, they're very close and supporting of one another. There's no starriness.

Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk

HE claimed to be descended from Princess Elizabeth Bathory, who drank the blood of virgins, and was sometimes referred to in the media as the "World's Greatest Snob".

In my opinion this couldn't be further from the truth. It was such a misunderstanding, because the thing about Iain was that he was obsessed with genealogy and fascinated by people, so when you met him he would start asking you questions about your family, and where they came from. Everyone thought he was a snob, but he wasn't, he was just hugely curious to know where people came from.

And he was great fun. He was the Albany Herald at the Lyon Court but he sometimes didn't really like public life. I was with him when he was supposed to be appearing at a garden party at Holyrood and he hid under the table, in his Lyon's tabard and everything and refused to come out – and this was a man in his sixties! I also know a story, which is possibly apocryphal, about him dancing with the Queen and suddenly saying, "I love you, Ma'am, I love you," and her saying, "Yes I know, but don't tell Phillip."