Today Is Tomorrow's History
One of the truly remarkable things about my Spirit Of Brooklands project, was the realisation that nature is incredibly resilient, and, when left to its own devices, could prosper after apparent destruction. You would think that the laying of 3 miles of 6 inch concrete, would bring an end to the chance of anything growing there, but as this photo shows, nature can break through, and even thrive.
Continuing from my previous blog post Sunset OR Light Pollution.
Once I had decided that I wanted to continue with my Spirit Of Brooklands project, I then had to work out how to gain access. Now most of it is publicly accessible, but the land obviously belongs to someone, and if I wanted to publish the resulting photos, then I would need consent from the landowner.
As we enter 2023, I realised that it was 15 years ago that I took the first photo that formed the basis of my Spirit Of Brooklands project.
At the time, I had just bought a new camera which was meant to be good at long exposures, and I wanted to test it out. The darkest place I could think of was a banked section of the former Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit, where there was no artificial lighting, so would be pitch black after dark.
Brooklands Museum has its own TV show called Secrets Of The Transport Museum which is on Yesterday channel and is well worth a watch (it’s on catch up at UK Play TV too). Although my series of photographs, The Spirit Of Brooklands mainly focussed on its history as a motor racing circuit, Brooklands also played a significant part in the aircraft industry being a just in time manufacturing centre for aeroplanes during World War Two.
The hangar featured in this photo is a Bellman Hangar and was designed to be a temporary fixture when it was first located on the Finishing Straight of the racing circuit, but is now a grade II listed building. I shot this just before it was moved to another area of the site to become part of the aircraft factory.
Brooklands Museum has received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help towards their aim of re-engineering Brooklands. This involves moving the Bellman Hangar, which is currently located on the Finishing Straight of the Motor Racing Circuit, off of the circuit and reinterpreting it as the aircraft factory.
It was suggested to me by the museum that it would be good to have before and after photographs of the hangar shot in a similar vein to the night shots that formed part of my Spirit Of Brooklands Project and book. Never one to shy away from standing alone in the dark I took up the challenge and here is the final image, with the Finishing Straight in the foreground.
It will be a while before the hangar is moved but when it is I’ll be back, so to speak.
Bellman Hangar, Brooklands Museum
I am delighted to announce that I have managed to produce a book about my Brooklands project. The book is available as a hard back book with a dust cover, and contains all the images from my web site plus some previously unpublished shots, along with details and anecdotes about the project. The book is available from Blurb, the print in demand publisher, and is also available as an ebook. The retail price for the printed book is £59.95 plus shipping, but Blurb are offering various discounts in the run up to Christmas (currently 30%). I have also acquired a limited number of books at a reduced rate (£39.95) and have made them available to order through my web site. Stocks are limited so when they’re gone they’re gone!
Another of my actor projects saw us in Peckham working with Michael who took on the role of an Urban Soldier, living on the woods and heading in to the city to fight the powers of evil.
It was a horribly cold and wet night, but Michael was a true professional and stood there in a t-shirt looking like you wouldn’t mess with him, although as Michael put it himself “a black guy, at night, in Peckham, with a gun, is kinda asking for trouble”! Luckily none came and we managed to get these fab shots.
Special thanks to my assistants Oli and Tim for braving the elements and for wading through the mud keeping the lights covered from the rain.
I’m very excited to announce that the Spirit of Brooklands project is is being exhibited at Brooklands Museum, officially opening this Saturday (June 15th) to coincide with the biggest event in the museum’s calendar, the annual Double Twelve weekend. There will be a number of the prints on display in the art gallery in the Clubhouse, all of which are for sale with 30% of the takings being donated to the museum.
It’s a great day out, especially if you have kids. They have the first Concorde ever to travel at Mach 2 in the museum and trips aboard can be booked, which is worth doing. They also have the old scale model Concorde that used to sit on the roundabout on the way in to Heathrow Airport, now sitting at the entrance to Brooklands Museum and Mercedes Benz World.
The exhibition runs for 6 weeks, so there’s plenty of time to head down there and check it out!
I’m very excited to announce that the Association of Photographers (AOP) will be showing my Spirit of Brooklands project as part of it’s online series of members exhibitions. The exhibition will run from May 9th until June 5th and further details can be found at the AOP site.
The AOP have chosen this image of the Clubhouse as the lead image for the promotion, and it was actually the last image that I photographed in the entire series, thanks to a nudge from the editor of the Brooklands Trust Magazine! I quite like the way the lights and stairs look like the headlights and grill on the front of a car.
The Brooklands Clubhouse
There’s been a fair amount of publicity for the event so far including online coverage by the London Evening Standard, 55 Baker Street, LondonTown, and Vicinitee.com
I will shortly be announcing another exhibition of prints at the Brooklands Museum so watch this space!
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