Margaret
Macdonald Casson (nee Troup)
1913 – 1999
Architect …. Designer…. Photographer
Margaret Macdonald Casson practised as an architect and designer in
London until 1984. Born in South Africa and educated in Britain, she
trained at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London University and
taught interior design at the Royal College of Art for twenty five years.
She served on numerous design committees including the Design Council
and the Arts Council.
After retirement from teaching she returned to an early love and interest
in photography, experimenting with the medium in a number of directions
including platinum/ palladium printing with its subtle nuances of tone
and its ability to absorb and reflect light. The ‘camera-less’
photogram, when an object is placed on sensitised paper and exposed
to light, was the conduit through which she explored her fascination
with negative and positive.
Her photo-etchings were regularly exhibited in the Summer Exhibition
at the Royal Academy of Arts. Her work has also been shown in galleries
in London including the Akehurst Gallery in 1994, the City Gallery in
1998 and at the Fine Art Society in 2000. She also exhibited at the
Royal Photographic Society in Bath, at the MIN Gallery in Tokyo and
the Bertha Urdang Gallery in New York.
Margaret Macdonald's archives are now held in the Archive of Art & Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They can be consulted by arrangement; http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives-hugh-casson-margaret-macdonald-casson/
