India Exhibition and the 2011 UCI 1.1 Tour of Mumbai

This afternoon, I'M hopping the bird to Mumbai for my "India on Two Wheels" exhibition at the Trident hotel for TDI Fashion Week--starting February 6.  It's a great opportunity to leverage my images to help encourage sustainable health and transportation initiatives in India.  After the show, I'll stick around for the UCI's 1.1 Tour of Mumbai, where teams RadioShack and Liquigas have just signed up for the start list.

Here's the press bit for the exhibition:
Gregg Bleakney's "India on Two Wheels" project was initially conceived on assignment at the 2010 Tour of Mumbai for VeloNews Magazine.  During the pre-race Cyclothon, he met some of the city's Dabba Wallah delivery cyclists and became fascinated by the country's cycling culture.  After the race, he postponed his return flight home, rented a bicycle and mini-van, and self-funded a two-month photo-tour around India--making over 16,000 portraits of cyclists. Gregg considers India's 300 million "common man" cyclists a cultural treasure at risk of extinction because of the emergence of a new class of inexpensive motorcycles.  By partnering with the Tour of Mumbai and ID Sports for this exhibition, he hopes to help preserve and share this fascinating bike culture while encouraging future bicycle transportation, health, and sport initiatives in India.

A web-preview of the show.

*New* India On Two Wheels - Mumbai Exhibition - Images by Gregg Bleakney

2011 Kick-Off: Judging and Being Judged

Año Dos Zero Uno Uno dropped with an email from the folks at Photo District News Magazine notifying that some of my 2010 images had been selected for their annual World In Focus professional travel photography awards.  PDN is a photo-industry magazine and sums up the recognition: "World In Focus teamed up with National Geographic Traveler to find the most innovative and inspiring travel images captured by professional photographers around the world."

Though I didn't nab the grand prize (that honor was bestowed upon an exploding Icelandic volcano--and those are generally tough to beat), I was awiggled to learn that my pictures were chosen for three of the five total categories: "Sense of Place" for an image of a South Korean bus station, "Spontaneous Moments" for a street scene in India, and "Photo Essay" for portraits of tourists at the Taj Majal.

PDN Magazine: "Photo Essay" for portraits of tourists at the Taj Majal--top

While being judged for World In Focus, I also played judge @ The Daily Randonneur's annual photo contest for endurance cyclists.  I started my career by making pictures of endurance cycling trips and it was nice to get back to my roots while sifting through edits of smiling (sometimes grimacing) pedal pushers.

If you're keen on checking out some other 2011 picture-props, Adventure Journal ran my image of a "Mystic Indian Cyclist" and Photoshelter dropped my "India on Two Wheels" gallery in their weekly "shout out" blog.

PDN Magazine: "Sense of Place" for an image of a South Korean bus station--bottom left

PDN Magazine: "Spontaneous Moments" for a street scene in India--bottom left

Don Thomas Strikes Again - Nat Geo.com

My charismatic, dirtbag, wind-energy salesman and adventure buddy, Don Thomas has had a nice little run @ modeling these past few months. This fall, he made his debut in the Patagonia catalog and last week his hard work pedaling across South America landed an image I made of him in National Geographic's bucket list of the 20 most extreme adventure on the planet. 

On a separate note, I'm excited to see bicycle touring expand beyond niche media outlets and gain exposure to larger audiences through mainstream publications like National Geographic.  One of my career missions is to inspire more people to consider using the bicycle as a tool for travel, even if it does require putting up with the likes of Don Thomas for weeks on end:)

Co-Motion 2011 Catalog Cover

 

Co-Motion Cycles is using a self-portrait I made with my trusted steed the "Geoduck,"  a tricked out Co-Motion Americano that delivered me 18,500 from Alaska to Argentina.  It's been a while since I reviewed images from this adventure and the Co-Motion cover takes me back to windy days in Southern Patagonia--my tripod blew over several times before I was able to make this picture.  Thank you Co-Motion, thank you Geoduck, thank you tripod!

Adventure Cycling Association Tours Catalog Cover

 

A few weeks ago, I wrapped up a 47-day bicycle journey along Adventure Cycling's new Sierra Cascades Route with adventure buddy gMack. Challenging, beautiful, and lucky...2,400 miles along the backroads of the Cascades and Sierra with only 2.5 days of rain...in the Fall...are ya kidding me?  I'll be writing some articles and guest blogs about the route over the next few months, but in the meantime, some images from the journey are starting to turn up online and in print.  

One of my favs., gMack taking a mid-day siesta over Crater Lake, OR was selected as the cover for the 2011 Adventure Cycling Association Tours Catalog.  I'm all about pimping these tours -- they are truly a great way to vacay...and a big reason why the Adventure Cycling Association has been killing it these past few years, even through the recession.  

If you're curious, here's a link to an article I wrote about the Adventure Cycling Association's Tour of Washington a few year back.

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Winter 2010 Patagonia Mailer

 

Last week, Patagonia used one of my pictures from the RibbonofRoad collection for a promo emailer for their new windproof gear.  I'm always stoked when they use one of my cycling images b/c I'm a big advocate for using the bicycle as a tool for exploration and travel and think that Patagonia is a perfect company to help push this travelosophy.  In my high school years, before I had even the slightest interest in making pictures, I used to take the ferry to downtown Seattle from Bainbridge Island and ride my bike up to the Seattle Patagonia store just to grab a catalog and look at the pictures on the wall. 

Mountain Bike Magazine Feature - Colombia's Coal Miner Cyclist

I was bummed to hear that Rodale's Mountain Bike Magazine was shuttered last month. In a media age where top ten product lists (that suck in search engine eyes) dominate so much editorial content, it can be tough to get actual "out in the world" stories approved. So, I was really excited when the editors of Mountain Bike greenlighted a powerful story that I proposed--about real people in tough circumstances doing extraordinary things.

The story, featured in the September issue (written by Grace Bastidas) was about Colombia's coal mine cyclists. These guys are the most inspirational people I've ever worked with. Recently, 70 of their friends and peers lost their lives in an explosion in a neighboring mine, a tough blow to the resilient community of Amaga on the outskirts of Medellin, Colombia.

I've attached the article, video about what it's like to descend into some of the world's gnarliest mines, and a few more photos. I hope to get back to Amaga to cover this story in more depth at some point next year.

Coal Miner Blog Gallery - Images by Gregg Bleakney