Director & Producer
Misha Somerville is a Glasgow-based photographer, documentary filmmaker and craftsman who has spent two decades documenting some of the most significant political moments, often arriving under his own steam, long before the cameras of the world’s media.
He was in Independence Square in Kyiv in February 2014 when government snipers opened fire on protesters, killing more than a hundred people in what became the bloodiest episode of a revolution that would ultimately bring down President Yanukovych and set Ukraine on a collision course with Russia. He was at Banjul airport in January 2017 when Yahya Jammeh – who had ruled the Gambia for twenty-two years through torture, extrajudicial killings and systematic repression – boarded a plane into exile.
The same instinct runs through his documentary work. People of the Earth, Wind and Fire (2013) was made among the Dor Dinka people of South Sudan – a culture of extraordinary depth and resilience that the world’s media rarely reaches. Stronger Than Yolanda (2014) arrived in the Philippines two months after Typhoon Haiyan had devastated the country and the cameras had gone home. He has also documented life inside the Calais jungle camps, and made a film about world-leading heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub and his team at the Aswan Heart Centre in Egypt – bringing cardiac care to one of the most deprived regions of upper Egypt.
Alongside his documentary work, Somerville is also the founder of MK Whistles, built from a one-man Glasgow workshop into one of the most respected independent instrument makers in the world. Each whistle is handcrafted from aluminium, precision-tuned and built with the kind of attention to craft that is increasingly rare.
Both of Misha’s photo documentaries are available to view on the Dancing Turtle website. His photography and wider documentary work can be found at mishaphoto.com and MK Whistles can be found at mkwhistles.com.