Amsterdam By Bike
Peddle harder, the press of traffic in the narrow bicycle lane won’t carry you, it will rush past you, mere centimeters separating you from a nasty spill. You can’t upshift, you can only move your feet faster, hold the handlebars steady, don’t drift into the passing bakfiets. Left turn coming up, hand out and signal now, or miss it.
Bicycling Amsterdam is a practice of balance, aerobic exercise, and constant attention. It is not an opportunity to appreciate your surroundings, to take things in. Which is a shame, because there is so much happening in the city.
So I thought: What if I attached a camera to my handlebars to capture these events for me, so that I could focus on riding now and enjoy the view later?
It doesn’t help that I have a fear of strangers. Of getting close to those I don’t know well. Perhaps if I were on a bicycle, looking straight ahead, not obviously paying attention to those around me, maybe I could simulate a kind of braveness. So I thought: What if I used my bike as an intermediary, a mechanis to hold me apart from my subjects as I photographed them?
So I did. And I rode and I captured. Now, I present to you: Things I almost missed while running errands in Amsterdam by bike.
Colophon
Fujifilm X-Pro3 with Fujinon XF16mmF2.8 R WR. Taken throughout Amsterdam, The Netherlands.