Margaret Fay Shaw

Margaret Fay Shaw’s life spans a century of change. Leaving home and school in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia aged 16, she crossedto Scotland to spend a year at school near Glasgow. It was there that her love for Scotland was born. After studying music in New York andParis, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in South Uist. Life on the island had changed little from previous centuries, and materialcomforts were few. But the island was rich in music and tradition, and Margaret Fay Shaw’s collection of Gaelic lore and song are amongst themost important made this century, whilst her photography evocatively captures the aura of a vanished world.