Red Light Posture Addendum

A while back we wrote about the 10 ways that Copenhageners wait for red lights in our Red Light Posture Series.

The example, above, is quite clearly Posture #2.

Although it is Posture #2 with an interesting added detail. Balancing on tip-toes but gently resting the side of the foot against the pedal for extra stability. Most people performing Posture #2 choose to just place the tip-toes farther off to the side but on rare occasions you get to see this elegant variation.

See the whole Red Light Posture Series here.

Monumental Motion

Cycle Chic and Copenhagen's bicycle culture has gone walkabout with my "Monumental Motion - A cycling life in the capital of Denmark" photo exhibition.


These three photos are from the world premiere in Ljubljana, Slovenia last autumn, but the exhibition, in collaboration with the Danish Foreign Ministry, is scheduled to travel the globe for another year or so.

Over at Copenhagenize you can see more about the Monumental Motion exhibition. As well as read about minor diplomatic crisises and tales from car culture.

Cycle Chic Without Bicycles

I presented a keynote speech at the recent Velo-City 2010 Bicycle Conference here in Copenhagen and it was a departure from my use talk about Four Goals for Promoting & Marketing Urban Cycling. It was all about anthropology relating to urban cycling - the tiny behavioural details that the bicycle brings to society and the streets.

I wrapped up for a call for the re-humanising of urban cycling and the need to look not at the nerdy techgeek aspect of the machine but rather at the human beings who ride them. As well as the enormous positive effect that the bicycle gives the societal fabric in our cities.

Anyway, the result was that I was out on a photo shoot and found myself shooting people on bicycles - and then promptly cropping out the bicycles so that we're just left with homo sapiens - fellow citizens - gracing the urban landscape with their transportational motion. It's another attempt at photographic reductionism. Bicycle culture minimalism. Many of the bodies and limbs reveal that the person is on a bicycle. Many don't.

Let the gearheads get all hot and bothered about the bicycle. Sure, bicycles are a gift to our cities and towns, but I prefer to celebrate the people who ride them. Without them we're just left with awkward piles of steel and rubber.

It's not about the bicycle. It's about you... on a bicycle.

Dreamers on Bicycles

Max Pinckers is a Belgian photographer with a splendid series of portraits of cycling commuters called 'Transitions'. Thanks to our mates at CycleChic.be for the tip.

‘With the series Transitions, I explore this idea by making an attempt to ‘catch’ people as they are dissociated from the encompassing world, deeply entranced in their own thoughts and absorbed in whatever is going through their mind.

The people in these images are cycling on a long and straight daily commuter route. When we cycle we’re disconnected from the world around us, we dream and ponder whilst mechanically riding along a familiar, somewhat mundane path.

Submerged into an ‘absorptive mode,’ people’s expressions depict themselves in an honest way – unposed, unconcerned and unaware of either the photographer or the camera. The relation between the photographer and the subject has therefore been obscured, something which provokes us to ask ourselves if these really are portraits.’

Brilliant series. Beautiful.


Thanks to Stefan for the link.

Viktor Vauthier

My favourite photo website at the moment. Viktor Vauthier Photographic Diary.

Red Light Posture Series - Addendum

Damn. I thought I had them all covered. In my Red Light Posture Series from last year I thought I had seen all the variations Copenhageners use while waiting for red lights. Here's a new one. Lovely.

We'll call this one The Copenhagen Casual Lean.

The Urban Dressing Room

When the bicycle is such an integral part of your life as it is in Copenhagen, you find yourself doing everyday things on or near your two-wheeled transport tool. Stopping at a red light is the perfect time to take your cardigan out of your basket and slip it on if the weather takes a chilly turn.

Or while you're waiting for a friend outside the train station, adjust your fashionable layers by removing your sweater and putting your jacket back on.

The chap on the right is using his red light moment to slip on a jacket as a slight rain starts to fall.

Or you can just hop off your bike at the red light, remove your jacket and secure it with your bag on the back rack.

Nobody says you have to been stationary. Danes can do pretty much anything on bikes as this lady shows us. Taking off her jacket while riding through the countryside.

And nobody says that you have to put the jacket on the back rack or in the basket. If the heat of the summer gets to you, just hang it on your head.

Bicycles and Shopping Trolleys

Now we've had a lot of themes over the years here at Cycle Chic, but we've missed this one until now. Bicycles and Shopping Trolleys. Together at last.

The classic Copenhagen shopping trolley transport form.

The bike lanes are wide so that we can share with people in the process of that all important activity - getting beer home.

Or tables.

Summer Holiday One Shots - Cycle Chic Classics

A Cycle Chic Classic.
This shot is one of a series of 52 photos from a Copenhagen bench in 19 minutes. I only shot a fraction of the bikes that went past but the whole series hammers home how important the bike is to Copenhagen life.
Shot between 14:01 - 14:20 on April 24, 2008.

See the slideshow for full effect

19 Copenhagen Minutes

There is a website out there that features 82 pictures of Amsterdam bicycles in 73 minutes, taken by a tourist. I was sitting on a bench with a friend, enjoying the sunshine yesterday, and I got a spontaneous idea. I started shooting photos and ended up with 52 decent photos in 19 minutes before I had to head home.

The photos were taken between 14:01 and 14:20 on 24 April 2008. They only represent a fraction of the bikes that went past in both directions. Here are some of the highlights in true Cycle Chic style, but the whole set features all manner of Copenhageners. Young and old, men and women, old bikes and new bikes. You name it.


Taken at 14:10

Taken at 14:04

Taken at 14:02

Taken at 14:12

In order to see the whole set in all it's glory, you can see it on this Flickr Slideshow - it opens in a new window.