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  • Welcome to the #BikeNYC blog!

    Brooklyn photographer Dmitry Gudkov's #BikeNYC project is an ongoing series of portraits and profiles of New Yorkers who use a bicycle to get around. Taken together, these images and stories begin to form a portrait of New York as an emerging cycling city.

02-16-2012

New York Bike Portrait: Ross in Queens

“Biggest problem is deciding which bike to ride,” Ross told me before we met up for a photo. Ross likes bikes. He built this cruiser himself, as he did the other “couple dozen” he has lying around the house.

He started getting handy with bikes at a young age: ”When I was 6 years old, my chain broke, and my mom didn’t know how to fix it. So I taught myself – I found I was naturally good at it.” He used to ride road bikes but now prefers cruisers, especially for city riding. “You just don’t see as much when you’re bent over the handlebars.”

Ross lives in Woodside, Queens, and thought something “industrial by the water” might be good for the portrait. So here we are in Queensbridge Park, which, by the way, has a beautiful, newly paved 2-way bike lane running along the water.

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02-15-2012

Bike Portrait: Susan in Union Square

“I’ve been riding in New York City for 37 years. I practically raised my two kids on the back of a bike. I live in Tribeca and ride pretty much everywhere. I love riding on the West Side bike path. Not so much on the East Side one.”

“I’ve had many bikes over the years. Had a few stolen. I got this one at Target a couple of years ago. It’s great – light and comfortable.”

Do you have many friends who ride?
“Not too many. I’ve kind of become the friend who says ‘I’ll meet you at your place’, because it’s pretty easy for me to get anywhere on my bike. Though I also have a couple of friendships I wouldn’t have if I didn’t bike.”

What about your family who don’t live in New York? Do you think they’re crazy for riding here?
“Yes. But they also think I’m crazy for living here. Still.”

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02-06-2012

Union Square Bike Portraits: Sebastian and Zack

Sebastian Delmont (and bird!)

I finally got a chance to photograph Sebastian Delmont last week in Union Square. Sebastian loves biking, he loves the Internet, and he loves talking about biking on the Internet. He’s all over the #BikeNYC and hashtag on Twitter, he designed and produced some cool #BikeNYC stickers, and I’ve met him at a few #BikeNYC meet-ups. So I was pretty surprised when he told me last week that he’s only been riding regularly for about 2 years.

It began, sadly, when his old bike, which he rode occasionally, was stolen while locked up near Columbia. Sebastian bought a nice new bike and, having made the investment, decided to give bike commuting a shot. His commute took him from Harlem to the Flatiron, where he works at Street Easy. (I’ve actually photographed his boss, Michael Smith, and another coworker, Jordan for the series.) He loved the daily exercise and being liberated from the subway. Still, he figured he’d only continue riding until it got too cold and then go back to riding the subway. Autumn came, then winter, and every time the temperatures dropped, Sebastian realized that with some minor clothing/equipment adaptations he could keep on riding. Which is what he wanted to do. So in effect it never got too cold.

Now he prefers to get everywhere by bike, and is only occasionally deterred by logistical considerations (meeting his wife for dinner on a day she didn’t ride, or if it’s too cold for his small kids, who sit in a child seat and don’t get to pedal). Otherwise he’s out there riding and evangelizing for the bike. Even snow doesn’t necessarily keep him off the bike.

Sebastian also brought his coworker Zack Halbrecht to the shoot.

Zack Halbrecht

Encouraged by Sebastian, Zack started bike commuting around the same time. They both say that as they were getting more into bike commuting, there was a small competitive component spurring them on. Neither wanted to chicken out on a chilly or rainy day just to see the other roll into work on his bike. Zack commutes from Park Slope.

There are a couple more nice shots over on my Google +. Add me to your circles! All the cool kids are doing it.

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01-30-2012

Market Research

Well, this is pretty cool. A couple of students at the School of Visual Arts, New York, are working on a thesis project called Paint Your City. It involves tracking urban bike rides to create an interactive city map. As best as I can tell.

I recently got a pingback on my site and saw this post. Carrie and Kristin actually to print out every single one of my New York bike portraits to try and visualize what type of cyclist would be in their target audience. They concede that this is more of a fun exercise involving “silly stereotyping, and us imagining what kind of person this possibly could be” rather than serious market research. Still, I love that they did this, and it’s fun seeing the portraits laid out together like this. It did give me a chuckle that some of my subjects who appear in more than one photo were placed on different points in the cluster.

Good luck to Carrie and Kristin. Check out their website here.

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Julie - I feel good about where my photo lies on this little science project.

Kristin - Wait, whaaat? Who are the doubles? This feels like a weird, inverted memory card game. Let’s blame the bad print-outs we were working with ;)

And yup, Julie, YOU ARE IN so you better feel good about it!

shmuli - I like where my photo is hanging out as well!