Werner Kissling was a German ethnologist. He made one of the earliest existing films of spoken Scottish Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....

, Eriskay: A poem of remote lives (1930) in Eriskay

Eriskay

Eriskay , from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Eriskay became the ferry terminal for...

. He took many photos of the traditional crafts on South Uist

South Uist

South Uist is an island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. In the 2001 census it had a usually resident population of 1,818. There is a nature reserve and a number of sites of archaeological interest, including the only location in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. The...

 and Eriskay which now serve as a record of the way of life then.

Books of his photography have been published posthumously:

• A Different Country : the photographs of Werner Kissling, Edited by Michael Russell
  Michael Russell
  Michael William Russell, is a Scottish National Party politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Argyll and Bute constituency...
  
  , Birlinn, November 2002 ISBN 184158245X
• A Poem of Remote Lives: Images of Eriskay 1934 - the Enigma of Werner Kissling 1895 - 1988 Written by Michael Russell
  Michael Russell
  Michael William Russell, is a Scottish National Party politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Argyll and Bute constituency...
  
  ISBN 1897784465

External links

• Scottish Screen biography with link to clip of Eriskay: A poem of remote lives