PROFILE
The Definition of #BikeNYC Style
Why did you start taking photographs of fashionable people on bikes in New York City?
Cycling had kind of changed my life, and I thought that by showing people how beautiful it is and all the different types of people who ride, others might also be encouraged to get on a bike. The city kind of changes for you once you get to experience it by bike. You get to see more of it, you get places faster, you are healthier. You are more of a part of the city, I think, when you are on a bike. And unfortunately not everyone gets the chance to do that.
How many cyclists have you photographed so far?
It has got to be upwards of four hundred.
What have you learned in taking pictures of so many cyclists?
I have learned that people from all walks of life ride bikes. People ask me
what a typical New York City cyclist is like, and I can’t answer, because that is
like asking what a typical New Yorker is like. New York is an exceptionally
diverse city and the cyclists that make up that population are exceptionally
diverse as well. If there were any generalities that I could make, I would say
that when you are looking for stylish cyclists, you tend to find people who
are creative, so I have photographed a lot of artists, actors, models, and photographers. I’ve also learned that it is easy to get everyone to smile, because they are already riding a bike.
Was there ever a bicyclist who got away?
I was on a bridge somewhere once, going downhill, and this woman rode
by in the other direction, going up. I did not have enough time to turn around
and chase her down. She was quite striking. Fortunately, a few weeks
later, I ran into her at P.S. 1 MoMA — a French artist named Virginie [pictured,
below]. A couple of times I actually pulled someone over and then
realized that I had already taken their picture.
What do you focus on when you compose your photos?
You cannot overlook the backdrop that is New York City. For me, the project
is as much about the streets and walls and buildings and sunsets and sunrises
and lights that make up the cityscape, as it is about the people that are in the
shots. It is an interesting improvisation exercise for a photographer to catch
up to a cyclist at a light or start talking to them at a stop sign, convince them
to give me a couple of minutes, and then find a suitable backdrop. As far as
the cyclists themselves, any number of things catches my eye: their outfit,
their bikes, something unique about them, or just a really good smile.
Is there any one thing that defines New York City bike style? And if not, what are the tribes and trends?
That is part of what made New York City such a good fit for this project.
You could not really pull this off in most other cities because of the sheer
diversity here, of not only the individuals, but also, like you said, the tribes.
There are just so many, from the Alleycat messenger types to Puerto Rican
Schwinn riders to bike commuters to people who just want to get dressed
up and go to an art gallery on a Dutch bike. You have got your BMX crowd,
your fixie crowd; you have got people in spandex doing loops around the park, your Black Label folks who make their mutant bikes. Which is to say, I do not think there is one specific type of New York City cyclist — there are so many. And one of the ideas behind the project is to show all of them. When I show people the book [New York Bike Style, published by Prestel in 2014] they can’t even believe all these people exist in the same place. And I think that is what makes not only the project, but also New York City, so beautiful.
How do you see your pictures fitting in with the huge changes that are taking place on New York City streets?
I would say that the pictures are enabled by all the changes that are taking
place. I cannot say enough about what Transportation Alternatives has
done for the city. With increases in bike lanes, obviously we have a long way to go, but the infrastructure has enabled people who would normally have
never ridden a bike in the first place to consider giving it a go, and for that I
am extremely grateful. I just hope the small part that the project can play is to
show how wonderful cycling can be.
