Although principally recognised for his black-and-white photography, Joseph McKenzie’s engagement with colour formed a fascinating parallel strand within his work.

While teaching photography at St Martin’s School of Art, McKenzie tested colour film stocks for manufacturers including Kodak, Ilford, and the Italian company Ferrania, reporting his observations and findings back to them. As these companies sought to establish their materials within photographic education, McKenzie’s position as both photographer and teacher gave him a particularly informed perspective from which to assess them. He often did the same for camera and equipment manufacturers.

His interest in colour continued into the 1960s and extended beyond technical experimentation into his documentary photography. During his important study of the Glasgow Gorbals Children, 1964–65, McKenzie used colour stock supplied for testing, creating a parallel colour record alongside his better-known black-and-white work.

McKenzie processed his own colour film but did not have the facilities to make colour prints. As a consequence, much of this work was never realised as a print and has remained unseen until now, when selected images have been brought into print by the Joseph McKenzie Archive.

The surviving colour photographs reveal another aspect of McKenzie’s vision: the same instinctive observation of people, place and social environment, but seen through a medium whose possibilities he was exploring.