The Highland Archive Centre is hosting an exhibition of photographs to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The exhibition ‘A Time to Fight: Living and Remembering WWII’ features contemporary images of World War II veterans alongside actors representing the veterans as they were 75 years ago. Those photographed took part in major operations including the Battle of Britain, D-Day and Dunkirk.
The project was created by Robert D. Anderson who wanted to come up with a different way of marking the 75th anniversary. Initially he set about capturing the portraits of a small number of veterans but soon realised that many of them were keen to tell their stories, some for the first time in decades, and so the exhibition grew.
Inverness-born photographer Robert said:
“I’ve always been interested in history and I have a passion for World War Two in particular. I also have a love of photography and I set about combining all of these passions into the ‘A Time to Fight’ project. Growing up in Inverness I was familiar with the pill boxes along the Moray Firth coast but had no idea why they were there until one of the veterans I interviewed told me he’d been transferred up from the south to this area during the war.
At the time they didn’t know why but they later discovered that it was because the beaches along the Moray Firth had the same tides as those in Normandy and the troops were being prepared for the Normandy landings. It was amazing to connect that real story to what I’d seen in my childhood.”
Although the veterans in the photographs are from England and Wales, many of them have a connection to the Highlands, either during War Service or since, with many serving in the Highland Division.
Alongside the exhibition, books of the photographs alongside each veteran’s story are for sale. This will be the only showing of the exhibition in Scotland before it travels to Kingston-upon-Thames in July.
The exhibition runs until 28th June and is open daily from 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
