There are a couple of good photographic exhibits on right now in Dundee. At the Central Library there’s a great display of photographs of archival material from the building of the original Tay Bridge and then the terrible disaster that occured in 1879 (as immortalised by the bard McGonagall, AKA the worst poet in the world). It’s so sad to read the long lists of those lost, but there’s something especially poignant about the list of lost items retrieved on the shores.

At the McManus Galleries they’ve got “A Silvered Light”: curated by Susan Keratcher, the photos have been selected from the Dundee City permanent collection and offer a pictorial history of the city and much more, as native photographers wandered around the world and brought back their treasures captured by the lens. The juxtaposition of time periods, styles and artists’ visions brings out unexpected vision. See the feature on Art in Scotland TV. Also worth a visit is the companion display, “Re:New” which highlights some of the treasures from the permanent collection of modern art. A few were familiar but there was a lot I’d not seen before.

There’s always so much to see in Dundee, from the Howff to the memorials for Grissel Jaffray, the last woman executed as a witch in the town (and the subject of the very enjoyable Claire-Marie Watson novel The Curewife). I had been meaning for the longest time to snap a picture of the memorial and the mosaic that leads down the passage off the Murraygate.

Of course my favourite photographs have very little to do with art, but the subjects are always a delight even if we’re just hanging around the bus stop on the way to granddad’s on a Sunday.

See the Tuesday round up of overlooked audio and visual gems at Todd’s blog.