{"id":987,"date":"2021-02-16T12:42:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T12:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/?p=987"},"modified":"2021-02-17T18:51:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T18:51:58","slug":"the-m25-motor-wey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/?p=987","title":{"rendered":"The M25 Motor Wey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chas’ boat moored on the Wey Navigation under the M25.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

So in the end I had to use a well known aerial map app to find a way of driving to his mooring (It’s not easy) and then went and knocked on his gate (it’s a secure mooring) and asked if he would let me photograph him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now when I say he lives under the M25 I mean it; that’s the M25 bridge<\/a> crossing the water just behind him in the photograph below. Chas has lived there since the 80’s and has a photograph of the bridge straddling the canal but without being attached to the main carriage way when the M25 was being built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I asked Chas how he managed to stand the noise, and he replied that you get used to it; in fact you notice when it goes quiet so Chas will pick up the phone and report an accident on the M25 to the police! I must admit that I stopped being aware of the noise after a couple of hours photographing Chas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after I took Chas and fellow boat owner Mick’s portraits at their moorings Mick sold his boat (he actually sold it the Monday after I photographed him) and Chas moved to land to live in his home nearby. I’m often asked why I am interested in taking photos of everyday people and my reply is always the same – “Today is tomorrow’s history”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chas and Mick’s portraits were featured in my exhibition at Chertsey Museum<\/a>, and in the accompanying book called Portraits Of Runnymede<\/a> a copy of which resides in the museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,115,99],"tags":[4,6,14],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-with-a-lens","category-portraits","category-portraits-of-runnymede","tag-douglas-kurn","tag-portrait","tag-reportage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y0F3-fV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaskurn.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}