Samantha McKee and the Scottish Landscape

Despite her clinical introduction to photography—fulfilling an arts credit requirement in high school—20 year-old Samantha McKee‘s approach to her craft is filled with passion, experimentation and playfulness.

I went into the class with nothing special in mind except for the need to acquire a passing grade. But once I started with photography, I never wanted to put down the camera. There was something special about capturing a specific moment in time that moved me and made me pursue the craft. My basic need to pass the high school course was overridden with a much higher need to capture a little bit of the world and pin it down.

The Seattle native is studying at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where the visages she’s met with each day outweigh her fascination with capturing people in intimate portraits.

The place I live always affects the pictures I take. When I am at home in Seattle, I tend to take lots of photos of people and animals. But when I am away at school in Scotland, I love to take photos of the landscape. The history behind every little piece of building or sloping hills is so significant that I can’t help but snap away at them. I love taking photos of landscape and animals because you get to see the beauty of the world printed out for you and you get to hold onto that forever.

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• Art by

  Samantha McKee