The Mini and I..
I have been preparing to go to Longbridge town and take photos of a mix of model Minis where the factory used to stand. On that site, in a railway tunnel, Birmingham artist Stuart Whipps has an installation there called; Longbridge Colours. These are painted a archway doors in the colour of the 1979 Mini City range. Stuart was inspired by the restoration of a 1979 Mini which he had completed with help from some ex British Leyland workers as part of an interactive art project. See here Stuart’s website….
Minis on this photoshoot
For this shoot I have used Oxford die-
cast 1/76 or 00 gauge Minis. To get
the right colours I repainted three of
them. The photo’s feature the
following models:
•
A yellow 1971 Mini van
(repainted from the original blue
and white police livery)
An orange with white roof 2009
Mini Cooper (repainted from red
black).
•
A brown 1959 Mini (repainted
from white with a union jack on
the roof). I’m especially fond of
this one as my grandad had one
just like this in the 1970’s.
•
Cream and red 2011 Mini coupe.
•
White 1974 Mini 1275GT.
•
Lime green with a black bonnet
1959 Mini that some of you might
recognise as Mr. Beans. This was
my first Oxford die-cast, acquired
when I was six some eight years
ago. The front number plate is
chipped from where my younger
sister threw it down the stairs
along with several iconic
locomotives of the same scale
from my model railway layout.
•
A blue 1972 Mini 1275GT.
•
A light blue with white roof 1975
Mini.
Video of Longbridge Colours
We have produced a short video to show how I took the photos. It is my first major YouTube piece and you can see it here…..
First … to where Land Rover Started…on the beach
My half term holiday with my
family was camping in
Anglesey. I took all my model
‘Landy’s’ with me as we were
going to visit Red Wharf Bay,
famous as Maurice Wilks came
up with the idea of the original
Land Rover on the beach there.
Maurice wanted a rugged 4x4
for the British market, based
on the Willy’s Jeep which he
had on his farm in Wales while
he also worked at ‘The Rover’.
He drew the picture of his
ideal car on the sand at Red
Wharf Bay. What fun to take a
range of his companies more
modern cars back to the beach
where it all started.
Here I am also exploring
making circles in Photoshop.
Models of cars really interest me.
Especially British cars and even
more Land Rovers. Perhaps it is
because I live in Solihull and it is the
car of my birth town!
In Covid lock down I got interested
in photos of my model cars and
taking images to make them look like
they were full size.
I took the cars all over the place - to
beaches in Northumberland, mud in
the front garden, castles in Scotland
and other buildings across the UK.
For my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze
Award project I worked with
Birmingham photographer Jonathan
Berg. He was just finishing a book
called, Birmingham’s Public Art. I
thought it would be fun to use my
models on location where public art
links to Birmingham’s car industry.
Birmingham’s Public
Car Art in Models
By Jonah Maybeck • Jonah has produced this blog page as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award. He has been mentored by Birmingham author and photographer Jonathan Berg.
