“Amsterdam Bicycles” Featured by PrintedArt

PrintedArt is featuring my black and white image of bicycles parked in Amsterdam in their latest curator’s blog post on images that run edge-to-edge.

If you have ever been to Amsterdam, you know that it is a center for bike culture, with about 465,000 bicycles for its 820,000 population (source:  Wikipedia).  In fact, if you don’t notice the bicycles in Amsterdam, you will surely be run over by one.

One think I like to do while traveling is to identify a few key elements that symbolize local culture, then wonder around making photographs of these symbols in various photograph styles and approaches.  Close-ups and “fill-the-frame” shots are two examples of these styles.

While originally shot in color, I converted the image to black and white for a more timeless feel, and to emphasize form.  Color just distracts, rather than adds anything to the photograph.  While the photo depicts a jumbled mess of bike parts, it becomes organized by repetition from bike to bike and attention is focused by the use of tight framing and shallow depth-of-field.

Below is another favorite shot from Amsterdam showing bicycles that appear to be stuck to this light pole, as if they were somehow magnetically attracted to it.