For the last several weeks I have been covering the Boston blizzards. Before the first storm hit I went out in Fort Point/Boston and captured various spots. My ideas was to show the landscape before and after the first storm. Out of this series there was one image that particularly I liked. It shows a bike that had been attached to a parking meter. Right after the storm I walked by there again and took another photo of it and I tried to shoot something similar to the first shot. The following days I walked by that bike again and every time I passed it, and noticed a difference, I took another photo. Not every day but two, three times a week. It came to the point that I would get dressed in the evening to get out into the blizzard to capture another photo of the lone bike standing there. Looking back at some of my early blizzard images from around the city I realized that single photos nicely capture the impact on a city at that moment but they don’t communicate well the cycles that someone goes through in Winter. The element of time is missing. Keeping the focus on one single item over a longer period of time, and showing how the environment transforms around it, would do this much better. At least that is what I thought. An idea formed to capture the state of the bike throughout the entire winter, during and after the snowfalls. A time-lapse would do that well but who would leave a Leica out there in a public spot for weeks. Especially with all the car break-ins around that area. Personally I feel that stills work well because they express the calm of the moment.
After the first storm I hoped for a bit more snow to come to make the series a bit longer. Not did I know that this would turn into one of the most memorable winters of all times, with almost record breaking numbers. Here is an uncommented set of images showing the bike going through the cycles of snowfalls.
26 January 2015
27 January 2015
28 January 2015
28 January 2015
01 February 2015
02 February 2015
02 February 2015
03 February 2015
04 February 2015
07 February 2015
08 February 2015
09 February 2015
09 February 2015
10 February 2015
12 February 2015
15 February 2015
17 February 2015
21 February 2015
25 February 2015
01 March 2015
01 March 2015
03 March 2015
03 March 2015
06 March 2015
08 March 2015
14 March 2015
15 March 2015
Winter is almost over but this series will continue until the snow has fully melted or the bike is gone.
D!RK
PS One thing you may have noticed; They are pretty good in clearing the walkway at that spot. Often they were shoveling the whole night. Sometimes I wished for a winter wonderland and everything would be covered in snow. But this way it captures winter in the city without beautifying it. That works for me.
Lovely photos. Thanks for sharing.
P.S. When’s that M9 vs M240 comparison coming? =)
Thanks you Gregory. That comparison may be coming soon. Currently the M9 is getting a new sensor and I may have to wait until early May to get it back. D!RK