Cycles and Vectors
Photobooth
15 June 2011
The Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time second anniversary ride
The photos taken of riders on The Passage's anniversary ride come in two varieties. First, there are relatively straightforward "yearbook" shots, seated on a stool. Before taking those, however, each person posed holding their bicycle in the air -- while standing on one foot. Given the tight space with a low ceiling, this was actually incredibly awkward, even more so than it otherwise would've been. Thus, the subjects appear in varying states of unbalance. Their arms and legs flail about to stabilize themselves; their bikes are held at odd angles. Limbs and bike frames counterbalance; components and features vie for visual focus.
Beyond the high-contrast black and white to which they have been processed, the resultant images thus feature another kind of contrast: between the easy calm most people (under the age of 35 or so) now feel in front of a camera after the onset of ubiquitous digital cameras, camera phones, etc., and the awkward action of performing the not-so-simple task of the bike lift (which is an abstraction of a well-established practice of photographing cyclists lifting their bikes over their heads), a practiced casual composure versus a spontaneous tension.
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