Today Is Tomorrow's History
I recently returned to Brooklands to photograph the Clubhouse as part of my Spirit of Brooklands Project. Whilst there I also took a photo of the museum’s tribute to the Olympic Cycling Road Race.
The Brooklands Clubhouse
Wicker cyclists at Brooklands Museum
Here’s some portraits taken over the summer:
Had a few days away and kept seeing signs that amused me. Here’s a selection:
I heard recently that two of my Spirit of Brooklands images have been shortlisted for the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, which means that they will be exhibited at the National Theatre in London in November, and will appear in the associated book that is published by the organisers.
I entered the inaugural competition in 2007 and this image of Sandbags on Portobello Beach was awarded the Highly Commended category, and appeared in the Sunday Times Magazine article about the competition. I was asked at the time what the sandbags were about and said I had no idea, and that I had just found them lying on the beach. The day after the article appeared in the Sunday Times I got a call from Jephson Robb (http://www.jephsonrobb.com), a Scottish artist who said that the sandbags were part of his art installation for Big Things on the Beach (http://www.bigthingsonthebeach.org.uk), a public art trust in Portobello, Edinburgh. The sandbags were filled by the local people and then three pyramids were built from the filled sandbags.
Unfortunately I never got to see the final installation as it had been taken down by the time I found out about it, but there are plenty of photos on their website.
Sandbags on Portobello Beach
The Association Of Photographer’s (AOP) online exhibition featuring members work that celebrates the theme of British Spirit in this Jubilee and Olympic Year is online now (see it here – http://home.the-aop.org/current-online-exhibition). My submission entitled Jubilee Flags is part of the current exhibition and is being used as the lead image in the article about the show in the AOP’s Image magazine (cue whooping and cheering). A lot of the images are available as limited edition prints direct from the AOP, and the exhibition runs until September 12th, so check it out when you get a moment.
Jubilee Flags ©Douglas Kurn 2012
Near where I live is Brooklands, the worlds first ever purpose built motor racing track, and the scene of the first British Grand Prix. During it’s time many land speed records were broken there, and Brooklands became a major centre for automotive technology and development. Opened in 1907 with the remit to enable cars to drive at speeds of 100 miles per hour and above, one of it’s key features was that the track had to be banked. The total length of the track was 3.25 miles (including the finishing straight), and a significant proportion of the course consisted of concrete banking.
The final race took place in 1939 at the outset of the Second World War, as due to damage caused by bombing and trying to disguise the track from the air during the war, it became too expensive to repair it. Actually one more race did take place in 2009 when James May created a Scalextric track around the original course for his Toy Stories TV programme, and had a race between two teams.
There has been significant redevelopment of the site since the war but a large amount of the banking still remains. The Spirit of Brooklands is a project that I undertook with the help of Brooklands Museum (well worth a visit if you are at all interested in cars, bikes, planes or history), to document the remains of the circuit, and areas where the track has been removed but there has been an acknowledgment of its existence.
In its heyday Brooklands was a buzzing noisy place, with cars rattling over concrete at speeds of up to 143.44 mph (the course record), and as many as 287,000 spectators cheering on the drivers. To contrast with this I chose to shoot the project at night during very still weather conditions to give a peaceful, surreal feel to the images. The project took four years to complete, and I have just added the resulting images to my web site.
Some of the vehicles at Brooklands Museum.
I was just sat planning a new project when there was this sudden mad splashing sound, and this Ladies and Gents is why we no longer have a hosepipe ban (the kerb confirms that it is the road!):
Sudden rain storm in Surrey, England July 2012
The Association of Photographers (AOP) is hosting an online group exhibition of members work to show what Great Britain has to offer in the context of this summer’s Jubilee and Olympic celebrations. The AOP curator has chosen one of my images to be in the exhibition, which runs from July 19th to September 12th. Here are 2 images that didn’t make it in, and I’ll put up the one that did on the Opening Night.
As you may know I have been working on a project which involves night photography (more about this soon) and once everything is set-up (which takes a while in the dark), this usually involves very long exposure times. I am often asked what I do during these protracted periods of time. Well you can see below that I behave like a tourist and have my photo taken with attractions like Concorde:
And occasionally I hang around with fast cars:
Or just loiter hoping to be recognised:
…. naughty Jimmy!
