Carnwath
Agricultural Show
by Cameron Scott
It’s the last Saturday in July and time once again for the local Carnwath Agricultural Society Show, which is held within ten minutes’ drive from my home in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. This is a traditional country fair, with livestock judging, craft fair, dog show, a foot race and much more. I’ve written about last year’s event elsewhere in Progressive Street, so I won’t go into too much background detail again. I tend to concentrate on the sheep judging, although this year I spent some time around the horse trailers where the owners were busy preparing their beautiful animals for the day ahead. In fact, I spent a considerable time chatting to an old man who was sitting in the back of a trailer. It transpired that we had a lot in common, and once the world was put to rights, I bid him good day and headed down the field to my usual spot at the side of the sheep judging pens.
Nothing about the event itself had changed – same layout, same weather, same people and possibly even the same livestock. However, as I was kneeling on the damp grass waiting for the fun to begin, I began to reflect on the changes that I have been through in those past twelve months.
On that day last summer, I had no idea what was about to unfold for me in the months ahead. At that time, I had already started photographing some industrial action protests that had taken place in Glasgow, and as autumn changed to winter this developed into a full-on project which culminated in an exhibition and a feature in Progressive Street zine. Oh, and I joined the best gang of photographers in the world!
Time to get back to reality as pretty soon the first sheep entered the pen, and it was business as usual, get in close and wide. The rest of the morning was spent looking at the world through the viewfinder, which is strangely comforting. On the way home I began to think of the old man in the trailer and smiled as I remembered how he used his walking stick to emphasise key points in his stories. Little did he know that Neil Young was singing about him in the background.
