A photograph entitled 'Laigh Kirk Close', taken in Glasgow, taken by Thomas Annan, in 1868. The photograph shows a narrow close in the centre of Glasgow, a figure stands in a doorway on the left. The poles sticking out of the walls were used to dry laundry.

A photograph entitled 'Laigh Kirk Close', taken in Glasgow, taken by Thomas Annan, in 1868.

The photograph shows a narrow close in the centre of Glasgow, a figure stands in a doorway on the left. The poles sticking out of the walls were used to dry laundry.

Thomas Annan was a Scottish photographer who lived for most of his life in Glasgow, where he established a studio in 1855. In 1868 the City of Glasgow Improvement Trust approached Annan to take photographs of some of the slum areas of the city prior to demolition. The resulting images are some of the earliest examples of documentary photography.