‘HOME and AWAY’ is a testament to Alasdair McLellan’s enduring instinct

With 500 images, the two-book set spans more than three decades of the photographer’s work, from his adolescence to the present day

In some ways, Alasdair McLellan’s HOME and AWAY is a retrospective, its contents spanning work from the photographer’s early teens to present day. But it’s mostly a testament to his enduring instinct—the images taken in 1987 near indistinguishable from those captured last year.

“I suppose it’s a return to simpler times; it was just me and the subject rather than having 30 people standing behind me waiting for the picture to be taken, as it often is now,” McLellan said. “But at the heart of the pictures then and now, it’s still that same relationship—it’s only who or what you photograph that really matters.”

The book is split into two parts: Biscuit Billy’s and Seventh Heaven. In the early stages of its conception, it was to be titled The New Elizabethans for his recurring British subjects, but the title didn’t encapsulate the nuance of the images—it felt “far too royal” for the intimacy offered in McLellan’s photographs.

Across 500 images, the two-book set is a portrait of the artist himself, his eye and his openness. HOME and AWAY is proof of his personhood—that which has persisted within his sensibilities, immune to time and experience. It’s a window into what makes up the essence of Alasdair McLellan.