Cycling Emerging
I remember a few years ago hearing from one of the guest on Resonance FM's - The Bike show that Cycling was basically a socialist activity, a left leaning mode of transport. This was pre the cycling boom and it was certainly viewed as a fringe pastime in the UK at the time.
Fast forward to today, and the London streets are brimming over with cyclists of all types, Tories are rarely not seen on bicycles and cycling is heralded as the 'new golf' in the boardrooms of the city. It has indeed become a truly egalitarian form of transport.
But no matter what political point you want to make or how much you want to impress your work colleagues, or how fancy your bike is or how high tech your clothes are, the benefits of cycling are the same for everyone - freedom, exercise and fitness, free transport and a time to think.
It also interesting that in an increasingly high tech and computer dependant world the bicycle, a very low tech device should be making such a come back. Maybe its a subtle symbol of our defiance.
This series of photographs has two slightly different but hopefully complimentary ways of capturing something of this.
The portraits were shot in an elevated formal style on the street, with short interviews with the cyclists and attention to clothes, style and bicycle.
The cyclist emerging are ‘action’ photos of Cyclists on the streets of London frozen at high speed on their journey across town.
Through location and some luminosity retouching I isolated them, creating statues of mundane cycling archetypes, elevated to a monumental status.
Each cyclist is dramatised in a moment of detached concentration, an intense personal time of solo activity, determined, aggressive, energetic, but all clearly enjoying their ride.
The full set is in a new gallery on my website here and one of the shots is also currently on show at Photofusion Salon 2014 show until the end of the month.
Many thanks to Dr Bike and Ilka Noggler for there help with this project.