From the City of London Police cycle squad to the elderly participant in Olympics, from the revival of rolling-racing to the young fashion designer of clothing, to name just a few – “London Cycle Stories”, a 28-minute photo-documentary, explores the love-hate relationship between London and bicycles through 11 individual and group stories.
“London Cycle Stories” is a multimedia project in which still pictures and audio cooperate in something comparable to an anthology film. The 11 clips are 11 slideshows (pictures, title and some visual captions) with an audio trace (interviews, ambient sounds, voices) that serves as an audio caption – mainly with the character-driven audio style.
Bicycles are part of the London urban landscape, but, despite having a Mayor, Boris Johnson, who is called the “cycling mayor”, the UK capital isn’t a bike-friendly city. There is a huge problem with the infrastructure, from cycle lanes to bike parking spaces, and there is the safety issue: accidents involving cyclists have been dramatically increased in the last few years. According to a survey from Cycling Plus magazine, London is rated 17th in the list of UK bike-friendly cities.
Nevertheless, some steps have been taken in order to increase the use of bicycles in London (among them, the Cycle Hire scheme: a public bicycle sharing scheme for short journeys in and around central London). My aim was to capture – through stories told by “everyday” people – the essence of cycling in London in the precise moment bikes are slowly moving from being a personal choice to a corporate and political city solution.
“London Cycle Stories” is the final project I submitted in September 2010 for my MA in PhotoJournalism at the University of Westminster, London.