Immerse yourself in Ian Macilwain’s world through his artistic and captivating photography and writing.

Ian Macilwain worked for thirty years in the health service as a medical consultant psychiatrist specialising in Psychotherapy . On retirement in 2004 he turned a lifelong hobby into a small business, photographing weddings and taking small scale commissions. One of these led to the exploration of a small rural distillery Knockdhu near Huntly. So great was the impact that he began to collect pictures of the abandoned machinery and processes in other distilleries and at the same time collected stories from elderly former employees. The resulting self published book ‘Bottled History’ launched him into the world of book production with the assistance of Eddie Ephraums, an experienced book publisher. This allowed an opportunity to combine a life long passion for Romania with his interest in distillation, into a photographic study of rural brandy production in the Northern Province of Maramures and later a poetic study of this lovely country published as a limited edition art photography book. In 2017 his interests took a different direction as through walking he exposed the hidden corners of his own home territory. eventually producing a successful sell out book celebrating the treasures formerly unknown to him. Finally in 2020 he took the opportunity to immerse himself in natural history, as a means of coping with the anxieties of the pandemic, through taking advantage of permitted exercise. The book ‘Catching light’ combines his best photographs taken over a 90 day period in the Spring of 2020, with a contemporaneous blog recording impressions, thoughts and ideas.

Ian's latest obsession is the world of home cheese making, to which he has written a straight forward introductory book published in 2023. This is somewhat of a departure from photo books and is unashamedly modest in scope with most of the pictures taken with a mobile phone. It is hoped that this will inspire people to explore further. Who knows? It may start them on a road towards professional cheese making. It is highly addictive !