Made In Italy - Feature Story for AC Magazine

This month, Adventure Cyclist Magazine is running my semi long-form feature on the Price family bicycle touring company, ExPlus.  Most of my work for Adventure Cyclist to-date has been focused on my personal travels. Since 2010 my photographic projects have grown to include feature writing and I've found that first person format limiting (and overdone quite frankly--I bore myself sometimes).  Initially this piece was slated to run as a fairly standard travel narrative about cycling across Sardinia but I change my mind after meeting the company founder, Rick Price.  I found Rick's story of ditching a small town on the Oregon coast to pursue true love and a life of travel in Italy fascinating and decided to trash my first proposal to focus on his journey instead of my own.  Fortunately, the editors of AC were cool with this (at least as far as I know).  When I first dropped this "change of subject" think on Rick he responded, "that sounds like a bad idea...I'm not very interesting."

I disagree:)

Cover Shot and 45-Page Feature Story - What I Did Last Summer

Last May, my 11-day assignment to Sardinia accidentally turned into a dreamy four months of scouting Europe for the best routes, trip operators, hotels, and people in-the-know for VeloNews' 2011 Ultimate Ride Guide.  The issue hit the newsstands this week.

For my part, I produced articles on Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain--45 magazine pages of reviews, short stories, and interviews in total.  I also created a photographic package and podcast for the feature(s).  I'm entirely grateful to the editors of VeloNews, who gave me tons of creative freedom and the authority to stay away from the top-10 list format (usually researched by a cubicle googler who's never done any of the stuff they are recommending) that has become so common in today's toddler attention span, search engine results driven publishing world.  In short, they let me keep it real.

Life's a boomerang.  My former career in software started at the University of Oregon where I founded a digital publishing company called WhereNext.com with a group of college buddies.  We focused on, of all things--travel guides to Europe.  I remember starting that company with dreams of stomping the streets of Europe ala Rick Steves--tracking down fresh new destinations and activities for young, independent travelers.  However, WhereNext quickly scaled to include a full staff of talented writers and as the President,  I assumed the role of working the upper floors of towering office buildings in Seattle, Angel investor meetings in Portland, and unassuming cafes in Silicon Valley to raise multiple rounds of VC funding to finance our growth.  So it was odd, though entirely fulfilling, to find myself doing what I originally set out to do after college--but with a 13 year detour.

A few pages from the article:

New Client - British Airways Magazine

En route to India a few weeks ago I had a nice surprise when I noticed the passenger sitting next to me flipping through a Twilight feature I worked on for British Air's in-flight magazine, High Life.  I forgot the photo-spread was out this month.  Later, I had a "pat myself on the back" moment when that same passenger asked me what I did for a living and I simply pointed to the image in the magazine he was reading (and the diminutive dude in the bottom corner of the image--tripod self-portrait). But before I could let my ego get carried away with itself--I was quickly reminded of my bottom of the rung coach class status by the olfactory splendor of a freshly reeking bathroom--which was conveniently located just behind my right shoulder in the triple-7's back row--which in retrospect, was a proper warm-up for the streets of India.

Quinault Rain Forest - British Airways High Life Magazine, February - 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

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

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