Downtown From Behind

Downtown From Behind is a documentary/multimedia project from New York. Summed up nicely on their website:
Every street below 14th film and photographed from behind, of you riding your bike.

Here's a funky little film about the making of. What a cool project!

It reminds us of the original concept here at Cycle Chic, way back in the day. We were inspired to take shots on our regular journeys through the city, shooting what was in front of us - which was invariably other cyclists.

Besides the aesthetic value of the shots from behind, we were inspired by two specific artistic angles:

One is 'Rückenfigur' - German for 'back figure'. It's a concept often related to romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and aims to make visible what the person featured is looking at. We were further inspired by the Flickr group of the same name.

The other one originates with the Chinese poet Zhu Ziqing and his poem 'Seeing Father From The Back' from 1925. There is a term in Chinese called 'Backsight', meaning basically the same thing as 'rückenfigur'. 背影 - in Chinese.
There is also a cool Flickr group for this.

Rain and Not

A spot of light rain. Which only seems to bother the chap on the left.

Peeking out of the Nihola in a rain shower.

Your paths are always crossing in Copenhagen.

Checking text messages is almost as important as riding your bike in Copenhagen. Almost.

Rückenfigur Redux

For a long while the visual style of this blog was dictated by 'Rückenfigur', or 'back figure'. Shooting people from the back. It's been a while since I've taken any like this, as even fine visual concepts have to evolve. But here are a few from the other day.

There were a couple of reasons for this 'rückenfigur' angle. As mentioned previously we are, by and large, on our bikes while we shoot. Waiting for the light to change, flying along the bike lanes. It's a practical issue, really. It's a tad difficult to take photos backwards while riding a bike.


Apart from that, we fancy the aesthetic value of the shots of peoples' backs and there are two specific artistic inspirations for this.

One is the aforementioned 'Rückenfigur'. It's a concept often related to romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and aims to make visible what the person featured is looking at. We're sharing their view, as it were. There's a cool Flickr group dedicated to it.

The other one originates with the Chinese poet Zhu Ziqing and his poem 'Seeing Father From The Back' from 1925. There is a term in Chinese called 'Backsight', meaning basically the same thing as 'rückenfigur'. There is also a cool Flickr group on this angle.

The very first Cycle Chic photo was unplanned and a lucky coincedence in a sea of street photography.

But it launched a visual style and a subject matter and this blog.