EDINBURGH.- The Royal Scottish Academy announced Caroline Douglas as the inaugural recipient of the RSA Elizabeth Lornie Photography Award, a new award developed to support artists working in still photography in Scotland.

The RSA Elizabeth Lornie Photography Award offers £5,000 to support a photographer in developing a new body of work. Supported by the Elizabeth Lornie Charitable Trust, formerly the Morton Charitable Trust, the award honours Elizabeth Lornie’s philanthropic spirit and lifelong passion for photography. Her longstanding support of the Academy previously enabled a similar lens-based award that ran from 2006.

Caroline Douglas is an artist and historian. She studied Photography at Edinburgh College of Art before completing a Masters in Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art. She recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art London, where she has been researching the role of gender and class in early photography in Scotland. She is a 2025 Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and teaches colour darkroom courses at Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh.

Caroline works with an expanded notion of photography, drawing on archival research, darkroom practice and overlooked techniques. She is currently exploring the overlooked role women had in the development of early photography in Scotland between 1780 and 1847.

Her proposal focuses on the contributions of two women who lived and worked in Scotland: Elizabeth Fulhame (1759 - 1810) and Mary Somerville (1780–1872). Caroline will make a new body of photographic work based on the experiments conducted by the chemist Fulhame and scientist Somerville, marking Scottish women’s place in photographic invention.

Colin Greenslade, Director of the RSA, says: ‘Caroline’s proposal embodies exactly what this new award was created to support, bold and imaginative projects that deepen our understanding of Scotland’s artistic and cultural history. We are delighted to welcome her as the first recipient of the RSA Elizabeth Lornie Photography Award.’

Caroline Douglas says: ‘It is such a great honour to be given this opportunity to make new work and to experiment materially with the visual history of photography in Scotland. The Elizabeth Lornie Photography Award is unique in its financial support of artist-led projects, specifically in the field of photography. My project - with its focus on women's overlooked contributions in the making of photography - couldn’t have found a more fitting home. My sincere thanks to the panel, Trustees, and those at the Royal Scottish Academy for so generously supporting this work.’

The RSA is working with partners to develop a new award dedicated to artists working in film and moving image, with further details to be announced in 2026.