Canal Boat Lives
Stunning photography exhibition from award winning photographer Gill Shaw capturing the lives of the people from the boating community in and around London.
The exhibition will be on display in various location around Foxton Locks - Canal and River Trust Welcome Station at the Top Lock and Foxton Canal Museum.
Canal Boat Lives
Gill Shaw, Foreword by Gyles Brandreth
Britain’s canals were largely built during the Industrial Revolution to move goods around the country. In time, this network linked the major cities, taking the narrow boats and their cargoes into the heart of urban areas. Today, the canals have been largely converted to leisure use but increasing numbers of people are also turning to canals as place to live. Today’s increasingly expensive and dense housing has meant that many are finding the delights of canal-boat living as an alternative. Close to open spaces and nature even in the heart of the city, with its own sense of community, living on a canal boat has become a viable way of life for many.
In this book, award-winning photographer Gill Shaw celebrates the variety of people living on canals today. Through photographs and their own words, this fascinating window into a different way of life will appeal to all those who would like to know more about Britain’s canal-side inhabitants.
Gill Shaw
Gill Shaw ABIPP AMPA is an international award-winning professional photographer. Based in London, she has been photographing people around the world for more than 20 years and has also amassed an extensive celebrity portfolio and recently launched a new celebrity website. In 1999 her book and photographic exhibition ‘Slightly Offstage’ raised money for Society of Stars helping children and adults with cerebral palsy and her later book and exhibition ‘The Hero Inside’ raised money for Help the Heroes, for which she received the Outstanding Achievement Award for Inspirational Photographs. She received the Photographer of the Year award for her support in opening a clinic in Africa for ‘Support for Africa’ and is currently working on her next project to raise funds for Wellfound, of which she is a trustee, which helps communities install wells and latrines in Africa. Her most recent photographic exhibition Looking Through the Lens at Canal Boat Lives was on view at St Marylebone Art Space, London, in 2023.