Photographs remind us how quickly the past fades

Woman with a newspaper in the Ward Rd Reading Room, 1960s. | Alex Coupar

For many, the scenes captured in the collection of Dundee photographer Alex Coupar will resonate. A woman studies a newspaper in a public library; a queue of people queue patiently for a bus in their drab overcoats. Scientist take on the look of the future as they embark on early technological experiments.

The pictures in an exhibition of Coupar’s work, none of which are more than 60 years old, chart the old giving way to the new while depicting a period that sits almost with fragility in living memory. While memories fade, the pictures will remain - and therein their power.

The photographs remain tangible evidence of what came before. Dundee companies such as William Low and Valentine’s Cards have now long gone. The department stores photographed by Mr Coupar, where models paraded the daring, colourful fashions of the day in their cafes at lunchtime, have been closed for decades. Of course, new dynamism has been embraced in Dundee but the document of a city in flux reminds us how quickly the present becomes the past. The exhibition at Dundee University serves as vital, tangible portal into fleeting time. Catch it if you can.