Capturing History: A work placement photographing the Heritage Collections.

From February to May 2025, the Heritage Collections welcomed Yzella Landry, a third-year student from the BA (Hons) in Photography, for a trimester-long work placement. As part of the placement, Yzella photographed objects and books from the University’s collections and took images to help promote the department’s wider work. Here, Yzella talks about her experience of her placement.

From February to May, I had the opportunity to work with the Heritage Collections department developing my photography skills through hands-on experience during my third-year university placement. After reading the placement advert, I became curious about this side of photography and decided to use this opportunity to learn about the conservation and digitisation of heritage items.

Through the placement team, I applied for the role and arranged a MS Teams call to discuss the work and what I would be doing further. We started the placement with research days where I spent the day on my own going over materials on how to properly handle the objects. which was then followed by an in-person handling training the following week before going into the studio to begin photographing the heritage items. We had two studio days, which spanned over two normal working days and then the following weeks I spent editing and cataloguing the items photographed.

[Caption: Printing block of playing cards from 1800 (ECC E575).]

The studio days were a lot of fun; I got to set up the studio space for the first time and got to see the heritage items for the first time too. I photographed a set of wooden printing blocks with fantasy cards carved into them along with various printing tools such as a locked-up forme featuring a graduation announcement. The metal type (i.e. individual letters) is held together to complete a full block of text, keeping it preserved in the state that it would have been used for printing.

[Caption: A forme featuring a 1988 Industrial Design graduation announcement.]

My favourite part of the placement was being given a tour of Merchiston Tower by Laura (Senior Curator). She shared the history of the medieval tower, and I got the opportunity to see the original ceiling boards up close. We even took a few loose boards to photograph and catalogue them as part of the archival process. It was curious to be able to see the hand-painted details that were both not just engaging pieces of artwork but also held a surprisingly playful aspect to them.

[Caption: Example of a loose board from Merchiston Tower’s painting ceiling, dated to 1581.]

I also got to use the book scanner to scan single leaves that were taken from their original fifteenth and sixteenth-century books. Each page had been placed into large card mounts, with the leaves inside and a window cut through the card to showcase the page along with a label for the year and title of the books they came from, the card being used to prevent damage to the leaves and to minimise handling of each leaf directly.

It was interesting to take a closer look at the prints and the detailed illustrations they were often followed by. The illustrations of the landscapes, buildings and dragons were stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to go through each page and seeing the variety of font styles and the vibrant use of colour in some of the drawings.

Through meetings and regular check-ins, I was given a realistic experience of what it would be like to work in this side of the industry, and it has made me want to further explore it. If I could continue this placement I would as I found myself enjoying the work and getting to learn the history behind the objects I was working with.

By Yzella Landry,

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