Becky Mursell is buzzing, and well she might be. Her work – a photography project called The Everyday Cyclist that has been four years in the making – has been launched and is on display in the stunning grounds of Osterley Park in London. More than that, the message she wanted to send is now out there: cycling is very much for everyone, whoever you are, whatever your background.
Working in a London bike shop, Murcell was surrounded by the usual slick marketing bumpf with which we’re all well-versed: models draped in nice kit riding fancy bikes in beautiful locations. But it wasn’t long before she realised that the people in the images weren’t really representative of the people she was serving in the shop.
“I was on the shop floor selling bikes, and I was like, oh, I don’t really relate to some of this imagery, you know?” she tells Cycling Weekly. “At the time I just had a hybrid, and it’s not really the people who I see coming to the shop, people who I see out and about on the roads. As I started to get more photography commissions, I did drop the bike shop job, and I thought, well, I’ll do a project, like a personal project, and fuse my passions.”
That was back in 2022, and since then Mursell has become a full-time photographer, enabling her to start The Everyday Cyclist project in earnest. It saw her ultimately gather more than 120 subjects from all over London, riding no less than 3,500km in the process and spending time photographing them in spots that meant something to them, and talking to them about their passion for two wheels.
(Image credit: Becky Mursell)
Thanks in part to a highly successful crowdfunding appeal that enabled her to fund the exhibition, those subjects and many of their stories are now being exhibited to the general public, for free, in Osterley Park.
It was a “surreal” experience, Mursell says, seeing the exhibition finally come to fruition and open up for the first time.
“When I went back for the first time to the park – after the install day – and saw members of the public stop and interact with the artwork, it took a moment for it all to sink in that I had actually pulled this all off,” she says. “I’ve even had a few people come up to me in the park with really positive feedback, which makes it all feel worthwhile.”
Mursell found her subjects from all over, beginning with friends and then progressing to reaching out to others and even getting London Cycling Campaign involved. There were even occasions where she encountered other riders while out on her bike, and asked whether they would be involved. The response, she says, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’ve never done the portrait off the bat,” she says, “but a few people I have been out and about cycling, spotted somebody, and then literally cycled up to them: ‘Hello, my name is Becky’. And then, a week or two later, we’re actually on the shoot.”
Some of those Mursell photographed will be recognisable to Cycling Weekly readers, including Pinarello Q36.5 pro rider Fred Wright, and broadcasters Rebecca Charlton and Jeremy Vine.
But most are not famous at all. People from all walks of life who have a mutual enjoyment of riding a cycle of some form, include adaptive machines that allow those who are unable to ride a standard bike access to transport, fresh air, and freedom.
Mursell gives the example of Quailyn, who suffers from epilepsy and pelvic arthritis and was only able to get around using lifts from family and friends – before getting an e-trike through the Wheels For Wellbeing charity.
“It’s been an absolute game changer for her,” Mursell says. “Suddenly she’s got her complete independence. She says that before, sometimes she’d have to use a walking stick briefly, but because she’s moving about because of the trike, her physicality has got better.”
Mursell adds: “Notoriously the imagery around adaptive cycles is really poor, so as I started to kind of get connected into that world, I was like, this is really important to show a good variety of those bikes that share those stories, display them equally – it doesn’t just have to be sports.”
“I’m just trying to encourage cycling to be a more welcoming space, because I think too many people don’t see themselves [in it]. They’re like, oh, I have to be a certain type, I have to have a certain bike, that kind of thing,” she says.
The Everyday Cyclist displays in Osterley Park until 6 July, before moving to Brockwell Park in Brixton on 8 July until 31 August, after which Mursell says she hopes to tour the exhibition more widely.