Interesting people, interesting things, interesting places.
I’m often asked where I find my subjects for some of my personal portraits; the answer is simple – if I see someone interesting I go up and ask them! Take Chas for instance; I have regularly cycled past his long boat on the Wey Navigation just underneath the M25 motorway bridge, and often thought he would probably make a great subject, but the problem was his boat was on the other side of the canal so it was difficult to make contact with him.
I’ve often wandered past a tin shed behind some gates, and wondered what was inside. One day I went inside and met Trevor, who has worked there since the age of 14. His Father worked there too, up until 4 weeks before he passed away at the age of 94. With all the welding, drilling and cutting that goes on there is a lot of dust everywhere but Trevor says he is tidying it up. Whilst I was there we came across a letter from 1984, although Trevor said that he had found one from the 70’s recently!
Dorota is a painter from Poland who has been in England since the 1970’s and who has one of the Chertsey Artists studios in Windsor Street, Chertsey. You can see some of her paintings here.
Another artist with a studio within the Chertsey Artists commune is Mary Hayward-Smith who is a ceramics artist and also paints in oils. She is Head Of Art at a school in Twickenham, and you can see some of her work here.
I photographed Claudia in her Chertsey Artists studio on a fabulously sunny afternoon with lots of lovely day light streaming through the windows. Claudia is a mixed media artist and you can see some of her work here.
Continuing my series of portraits of Chertsey Artists in their studios, here is Simon Gannicliffe who is a painter and enjoys life drawing:
Heater’s Bakery in Windsor Street, Chertsey is one of a small number of family run bakers shops in Surrey. They bake all their own bread in Bisley and deliver it to their shops fresh.
43 Guildford Street in Chertsey is home to Paul Simonson’s studio where he designs and makes unique bridal gowns. Paul also lectures at The Design School in Kingston University.
Alan and Jeanette have owned Carpetrama in Chertsey since 1991. Being in a shop in Windsor Street with large windows they have had a big screen viewing of some of the filming activities that have taken place in Chertsey over the years.
I have started a new project in collaboration with Chertsey museum to photograph many different people in Runnymede for an exhibition being held in the museum from October 2016. The idea is just to create some great images whilst capturing the people in Runnymede. Everybody who gets photographed will be included in the exhibition. I have set up a separate blog where a lot of the images will be released periodically and you can follow it here.
I’ll provide updates about the progress and the exhibition on both blogs to keep everyone happy.
This is Roger.
Roger, Chertsey