Sylvia Grace Borda | Artist Website
  • Mise en Scene
    • Mise en Scene
  • Farm Work
  • Farm Tableaux - Google Street View
  • Aerial Fields
  • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2020-21
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2017-19
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2013-14
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2010-12
  • Interrogations of a Camera
  • This is not a camera
  • Impressions
  • Seeing Technologies
  • Northern Ireland
    • Coming to the Table
    • Orchards
  • Kissing Project
  • Past Projects
    • Public Art Commission: Number 4 Pump Station
    • Community Engagement: Seeing Across Boundaries
    • Public Art Commission: Cuneo Camera Obscura
  • Artist Bio
    • Artist Bio
    • Teaching Practice
    • Public Speaking
    • Request a lecture
    • Purchasing Art
  • Exhibition History
    • Exhibition History
    • Reviews
  • Contact
  • News
  • Camera Histories
  • Momento Mori
  • Stereoworks
    • Two if not Three
    • Aura
    • Viewpoints
    • This is not a camera
  • re-COLLECT-ing
  • EK Modernism
    • EK Modernism series
    • Project legacies
    • Canada series
  • A Holiday in Glenrothes
  • Every Bus Stop in Surrey, BC
  • This one's for the farmer
  • Social engagement
  • Lumsden Biscuit
    • Social Enterprise
    • Edible photograph
  • What are you doing Richmond
  • Snow Cameras
  • Hunting Cameras
  • Architecture
  • Digital Art
  • Shifting Perspectives Book
  • Mise en Scene
    • Mise en Scene
  • Farm Work
  • Farm Tableaux - Google Street View
  • Aerial Fields
  • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2020-21
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2017-19
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2013-14
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2010-12
  • Interrogations of a Camera
  • This is not a camera
  • Impressions
  • Seeing Technologies
  • Northern Ireland
    • Coming to the Table
    • Orchards
  • Kissing Project
  • Past Projects
    • Public Art Commission: Number 4 Pump Station
    • Community Engagement: Seeing Across Boundaries
    • Public Art Commission: Cuneo Camera Obscura
  • Artist Bio
    • Artist Bio
    • Teaching Practice
    • Public Speaking
    • Request a lecture
    • Purchasing Art
  • Exhibition History
    • Exhibition History
    • Reviews
  • Contact
  • News
  • Camera Histories
  • Momento Mori
  • Stereoworks
    • Two if not Three
    • Aura
    • Viewpoints
    • This is not a camera
  • re-COLLECT-ing
  • EK Modernism
    • EK Modernism series
    • Project legacies
    • Canada series
  • A Holiday in Glenrothes
  • Every Bus Stop in Surrey, BC
  • This one's for the farmer
  • Social engagement
  • Lumsden Biscuit
    • Social Enterprise
    • Edible photograph
  • What are you doing Richmond
  • Snow Cameras
  • Hunting Cameras
  • Architecture
  • Digital Art
  • Shifting Perspectives Book
A Holiday in Glenrothes

Sylvia chose in 2008 to holiday for a week in Scotland's former New Town of Glenrothes - an area considered by many Scots as uninteresting and unworthy of documentation.

Glenrothes was designed as a Modernist enterprise. During the 1960s new residences and businesses were built in public art and park-like settings throughout the town. The town flourished at the same time as the emergence of colour photography and the representation of the banal as a photo subject in artists books (William Eggleston's Guide {1972}; Stephen Shore's Uncommon Places {1976}) as such Sylvia decided she would adopt a system of photographic representation coinciding with these events.

The artist was curious to explore Glenrothes as if she were a late-1960s photographer of the commonplace, such as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Lewis Baltz, or Robert Adams. In her images there is an interplay between the familiar and the uncanny representation of the urban landscape.

Many of these images contradict how some Scots would 'see' Glenrothes, and reinforce the observation that it often takes a visitor to see what others take for granted. Just as in real time it is too easy to rush by the every day this work positions itself so the every day environment can cause the viewer pause and to regard the commonplace as extraordinary.
C-41 prints |  2008
Project reviews and citations

Bruce, Keith. ‘There could be a market for timeshares in Cumbernauld’ Main feature, Arts, UK Herald, July 18, 2008

Exhibition roundtable about ‘A Holiday in Glenrothes’ by Neil Baxter (Secretary of Royal Institute of Architects Scotland) on radio Talk 107, Edinburgh July 22, 2008

Harding, David. "
Glenrothes is a shining example of the best attributes of new towns” in The Herald Scotland, March 11, 2012. ​
Artist discussion about the development of A Holiday in Glenrothes. Produced by the Scottish Civic Trust (2014)
https://vimeo.com/122963584


Project legacies

The Scottish Civic Trust in 2015 included Sylvia's series as part of its national curriculum. The project is cited as an example of how to observe and photograph the built environment. Sylvia also was invited to contribute and to develop a set of learning tutorials for young persons from ages 12 to 16.




  • Mise en Scene
    • Mise en Scene
  • Farm Work
  • Farm Tableaux - Google Street View
  • Aerial Fields
  • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2020-21
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2017-19
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2013-14
    • Cameras and Watercolour Sunsets 2010-12
  • Interrogations of a Camera
  • This is not a camera
  • Impressions
  • Seeing Technologies
  • Northern Ireland
    • Coming to the Table
    • Orchards
  • Kissing Project
  • Past Projects
    • Public Art Commission: Number 4 Pump Station
    • Community Engagement: Seeing Across Boundaries
    • Public Art Commission: Cuneo Camera Obscura
  • Artist Bio
    • Artist Bio
    • Teaching Practice
    • Public Speaking
    • Request a lecture
    • Purchasing Art
  • Exhibition History
    • Exhibition History
    • Reviews
  • Contact
  • News
  • Camera Histories
  • Momento Mori
  • Stereoworks
    • Two if not Three
    • Aura
    • Viewpoints
    • This is not a camera
  • re-COLLECT-ing
  • EK Modernism
    • EK Modernism series
    • Project legacies
    • Canada series
  • A Holiday in Glenrothes
  • Every Bus Stop in Surrey, BC
  • This one's for the farmer
  • Social engagement
  • Lumsden Biscuit
    • Social Enterprise
    • Edible photograph
  • What are you doing Richmond
  • Snow Cameras
  • Hunting Cameras
  • Architecture
  • Digital Art
  • Shifting Perspectives Book