The 42 artists who hiked up Cairngorm Mountain to take part in international project

The artists are celebrated in a photography showcase highlighting their cultural contributions to the local area.

Black and white portraits - the faces of photographers, makers, writers, performers and other creatives who are members of the Cairngorms Creative Collective and live and work in and around the National Park - have been brought together in an iconic group shot by French artist JR.

Inside Out places the Cairngorms on the world map of a project that has brought together more than 700,000 people across 154 countries and territories. The Collective’s work forms part of the Cairngorms 2030 programme, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The shots were taken at one of the most iconic places in the National Park, the plateau of Cairngorm Mountain.

Hannah Bailey, photographer and project producer, said: “We hiked up to the Cairngorm plateau to lay out forty-two portraits of local creatives who live and work in the National Park. We wanted to show that they're here, east and west of this summit, as skilled individuals and as a strong community.

“Creatives in rural areas are so often undervalued or overlooked, which is why being part of a global project like Inside Out matters. It puts the spotlight on the Cairngorms Creative Collective, the network that brings all these faces together as one force, supporting creativity in the park for generations to come.”

Contributing to Inside Out was something the artists wanted to do as part of the Cairngorms Creative Collective's first two-year activity plan. As well as joining a global art project, the group wanted to raise awareness of the Cairngorms Creative Collective as a geographic group of artists and use their collective voice to celebrate what they feel passionate about, summarised in the group’s action statement which has dùthchas at its heart - a Gaelic word which encompasses ideas of kinship, heritage and connections between nature, people and place.

Jess Greaves, director of Cairngorms Creative Collective, said: "Taking part in Inside Out felt like the right way to introduce the Cairngorms Creative Collective to the National Park and to the world. We wanted to raise awareness of the collective as a geographic group of artists and to use our collective voice to celebrate what we feel passionate about: dùthchas, community and this extraordinary landscape we call home."

Later in the Cairngorm Creative Collective project, a National Park-wide event or festival will be created, as well as an annual residency opportunity for local creative practice, expanding the opportunities available for creatives in the Cairngorms.

Inside Out began when JR was awarded the TED Prize in 2011, inspired by his large‐format street “pastings.” In the first eight years of the project alone, more than 400,000 people participated in Inside Out in more than 140 countries.