Artists directory

Robby

Ogilvie

Disciplines: Photography

Location: Edinburgh

Robby Ogilvie is a Scottish artist and photographer whose work explores perception, presence and belonging through lens based practice. He studied BSc (Hons) Product Design Engineering and MA Contemporary Art Theory at Edinburgh College of Art, grounding his approach in both material sensibility and critical inquiry. This multidisciplinary background continues to inform his work, bringing together structured research, conceptual clarity and an attentive engagement with light, form and human presence. His practice is grounded in attentiveness rather than spectacle. He works slowly, allowing mood, rhythm and atmosphere to guide the image, and is interested in how meaning emerges through sustained looking rather than immediate recognition. This way of working is shaped by his lived experience of keratoconus and derealisation disorder, which influence how he understands steadiness, reality and the fragile thresholds between inner and outer life. Rather than seeking new ways of seeing, he is drawn toward new ways of feeling. His images do not deliver emotion directly but create space for viewers to tune into their own responses. A recurring thread in his work is the surrealism of the everyday, where the familiar can begin to feel quietly unsettled through stillness, repetition or absence. His ongoing projects include Intervals, The Stillness Between, The Visible Unknown, Spirit of Place, Double Takes and Courts, each exploring different aspects of attention, atmosphere and place. Alongside his photographic practice, he is an active self publisher, designing and producing books, zines and printed studies that extend the contemplative nature of his images.

Previous Experience

Recent: 2025 The Thread That Pulls, Visual Arts Scotland Biennial, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Earlier exhibitions and curatorial projects: Gone Fishing, Dok Artist Space, Edinburgh Salontology, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh Edinburgh Art Fair with VabLab Gallery Make Something or Be Forgotten, Old Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh Blurred Boundaries, Old Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh (curator) They Do Things Differently There, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (co curator) Past Present Future, Henderson Gallery, Edinburgh (curator) Unco Site, Edinburgh Art Festival commission (co curator) Projects and publications: Ongoing and recent photographic projects include Intervals, Spirit of Place, The Stillness Between, The Visible Unknown, Double Takes and Courts. Ogilvie is also an active self publisher, producing artist books, zines and printed studies.

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