This is the last batch of images that I processed yesterday on the train. Both were shot in the morning. The bicycles in the Image of the Day stood in front of a school with attached kindergarten in Vienna’s Josefstädter Straße. I found that they had something … cool, a kind of adolescent charm and recklessness. I instantly thought of a gang.
The other image is of some shop for exotic furniture. They advertise end-of-summer sales (furniture??) in big letters written over their windows and they have two banners, one orange, one light green outside, along with the dark green of the wood. I go that way almost daily, it’s a short distance from work, and I have tried for quite some time now to put that impression into a photo. It’s a little awkward to isolate from the surroundings, but I guess I’ve made it this time. That’s what there is, that’s the essence, that’s what catches your eye from a distance, even when the surroundings would not.
The Song of the Day is “First Of The Gang To Die” from the stellar 2004 Morrissey album “You Are the Quarry”. This is a song about youthful, reckless heroism, a story about some young Hector, who was “the first of the gang with gun in his hand and the first to do time, the first of the gang to die”. A story about one who “stole from the rich and the poor and the not-very-rich and the very poor” and a story about one who “stole all hearts away”. It’s a story of love, crime, tragic heroism and ridicule. It’s a song about all the richness of life.
There are at least five versions on YouTube, I suggest to begin with the original video 🙂
There are 6 comments
ramin (2008-10-11)
I really like the effect that dodging has in this case. Generally these kinds of effects just look poor and amateurish, but this is a case in which it really brings out the main focus of the image.
Wonderful work.
Ted (2008-10-11)
This series is genius... If what photographic genius means is both an ability to perceive, then execute an idea in ways that resonate beyond the literal meaning of an image.
As you know, I'm transfixed by your bicycle photos. They seem like so many dances, each with its own soloists and in this case... company.
And I'd like to plagiarize your idea here. The theme seems so effortless in you images that increasingly I find myself taking bicycle pictures. But they remain pictures... snapshots. Where yours are images that dance, mine clump about, looking not so much like dancers but rather like vagrants or random street debris.
Yes, this will be a very successful book, series of calendars, and illustration for poems.
Marti (2008-10-12)
Hello Andreas,
There is something so very endearing about the bicycles, all standing together. The old movie series Our Gang, or The Little Rascals, comes to mind. I love the way the smaller bicycles are in front of the larger ones. The feeling I get from it is that the "big guys" are backing up the "little guys".
I agree with Ted, your bicycle images make a very compelling series indeed.
Andreas (2008-10-13)
Thanks 🙂
Yes, I'm pretty satisfied with this image. Not in all aspects, but it certainly works, and I guess that's foremost a result of these incredible poses. These bicycles are way COOL 🙂
The other thing that works is the white vignetting. I tried dark (painting in black on a neutral Soft Light layer) and it was not really wrong, but then I had the idea to try inverting it and it was a revelation. These bikes need a comics style! Well, and that's how it came together 🙂
Thanks again.
kari (2008-10-16)
i like this a lot. looks to me of a cool urban family hanging out together in the day.
J. L. T. (2008-10-11)
Great idea with the little gang! The fresh colors are accurate for the theme. sunny greetings
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