Between Frames
I think an e-bike made me more creative.
There's a certain irony to the notion that slowing down speeds up the mind. Photographers know this contradiction intimately--we stop time to capture it more fully. Like how the borders of a frame somehow expand space rather than constrain it.
As a creative labourer, I've spent years navigating the self-imposed or externally imposed labels that follow anyone who makes images for a living. "Oh, you only do those running photos, right?" The minute someone thinks they've got you figured out is the minute your work starts to calcify. Assumptions kill possibilities.
Someone once asked me, "Do you get nervous or anxious when you're on a job?" I stopped to think about it and replied: "No, not when I'm on set. That's where I feel I thrive, and that's where I want to be, even if it's out of my comfort zone."
There's this physical tax of simply getting to the job itself. Anyone who works in this field will tell you about that 4:30am pre-alarm jolt--the anxiety of "what if I left the batteries behind?", or "what if the traffic is just too much?", or "was my flight actually yesterday?" The sheer mundanity of this particular anxiety is what makes it so potent. It's not fear of failure, but fear of never even making it on set.
I've always thought how nice it would be if all travel to and from jobs were more of a breeze. And, well, I never thought I would say to myself, and even out loud: "Riding this e-bike is making me more creative."
Living here in Melbourne, I ride everywhere. I live near pretty much anything and everything I do here, so that helps. Most days I'm riding to the studio and back. Running errands, riding to the track for sessions with the AM:PM.RunCrew--life in general is on two wheels.
But until recently, I'd never ridden to jobs. Camera gear is heavy. It's in Pelican cases or oversized padded bags. It never quite fit in the basket of my 1980s Raleigh. If it did, it would be very precarious.
Then I had a chat with the team from Lug+Carrie. I spoke about what I do, about wanting to fit my gear on a bike and ride to shoots. I'm also deep in half-marathon training, and riding my other bike every day was not entirely helpful for recovery after bigger training sessions.
I got paired with a Tern Quick Haul P9.
What came next wasn't a transformation so much as a recalibration. I knew there were a few editorial jobs coming up where it was just me, a smaller kit (even though this still ends up weighing around 25-30 kg) and the subject I was sent to photograph.
I had one assignment where I needed to be there at 5 a.m. It was a smooth 20-minute ride away, bike full of gear. I rocked up, locked up and did the job for a few hours. Normally I'd be stressing about parking fines in the back of my head the whole time.
For another one starting at 7:30 p.m., I had a dinner with friends first. I rolled my Pelican case into the pub, ate dinner, said "see you later" and rode 30 minutes up the bike path, arriving feeling very chill and ready to go.
After weeks of these rides, I noticed my thoughts had a different texture on arrival. Ideas that had been distractingly half-formed were suddenly crystallizing while riding somewhere between the Yarra Bend and the studio. There's a particular state of mind--not quite meditation, not quite active thought--that emerges when your body is in motion but not straining.
I used to absolutely rip my commutes on my analog bike with the kind of manufactured urgency one develops living in cities, arriving places always a bit too sweaty. This experience has been different. When people ask what it's like, I struggle for the right analogy. It feels, I don't know, slow-motion but not?
For me, riding my Lug+Carrie really just allowed me an extra 30-40 minutes a day to think in a different way (not arrive sweaty)--and in a way that wasn't just sitting with a coffee somewhere getting distracted by my phone.
Anyway, here are some photos of my bike in places where I've stopped to let my thoughts catch up with themselves.
I’ve been photographing a new-for-me sport each month this year. The other week I went to a Drift night out at a raceway. Once I have a few more sports I’ve documented I’ll write up a bit more about my experiences.
Thanks for reading. I hope my story about riding a bike made sense. Sometimes I just like to think about how other things in my life relate to making pictures or being a working photographer.
Lastly, I’ve had on repeat this album by Marlon Williams the last couple of weeks.
And, Fade Evare. Every song on repeat.
Ciao.
BC