Saturday, February 19, 2011

Some E-Pubilished Work w/ Patagonia, British Air, and Cycling News

Three online publications are circulating some of my fresh images this quarter.  Two of them are new clients: British Airways and Cycling News. British Air pulled one of my shots of an ancient Maple Tree from Olympic National Park for a Twilight feature on their homepage, CyclingNews is using a gallery of shots of Team RadioShack and Liquigas @ the Tour of Mumbai II, and Patagonia Clothing Company is rotating an image of single-speeding through the Thar desert in Eastern India during my "India on Two Wheels" project. 


Secret Maple Tree in the Quinault, Olympic National Park

My $50 Indian-made fixie at a pit stop in the Thar desert.

RadioShack and Liquigas image gallery on the world's largest cycling web-site



Monday, February 7, 2011

India Exhibition/TDI Fashion Week Wrap

It's 5am in Mumbai--or more appropriately, "the jet lag hour."

Here's a wrap from some of the happenings at my India Exhibition and TDI Fashion Week which served as a charity fundraiser and promotion for the forthcoming cycling race.  Next up, we're heading to Nasik, India for the team arrivals and to flag off stage one of the UCI 1.1 Tour of India.


TDI Fashion Week - Images by Gregg Bleakney

Video of Lobby Exhibition


Kick-Off Media Scrum

Thursday, February 3, 2011

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


Sunday, January 30, 2011

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

Monday, December 20, 2010

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:)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

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.