It's a strange web...
Tom Bowie (Deep Six Cycles)
Today we have a short story that spans roughly 17 years. Back in the day, we got our start playing with bikes and metalwork in an old garage previously occupied by a family business. Now, this garage was more of a large structure most referred to as a barn. Although many race cars were built inside. It was constructed for commercial fleet maintenance , to house tools, and inventory for the business.
Back in those days, I had a friend doing photo restoration at a local photo shop. He would often tell me how many amazing photos of bikes and cars he would see during his workday. Of course, we agreed that it would be unethical to share photos customers wanted fixed or developed. However, one day months later he presented me with an incredible photo of a dirtbike riden on a frozen lake or pond. Well, this photo was soon hung in my workspace.
After a while, another friend Mike swung by to see what I was up to. I showed him around the shop. As we talked he began to ask me where I had gotten the photo. I told him the story and how rad I thought the shot was. Now suddenly a little agitated he told me something to the effect that he knew it was a good shot. He had taken the photo of his father and had it developed a short time before. And my print was larger than the one he had of it. This photo has a ton of weight with me. Not just because of how it came to me. But because his absolute character of a Dad was no longer able to ride shortly after the photo was taken.
Flash forward a bunch of years when we were at our 1st shop in the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. This same friend stopped into visit while he and his wife were on vacation. The photo he had taken all those winters before was hung on the office wall. Now in this era Smartphones were not prevalent. I believe blackberries were still the go-to. Decent photo equipment was a little more difficult to come by. As luck would have it Mike had quite a rad little point and shoot from one of the big brands. He shot a bunch of stuff around the shop for me and below is one of my all time favorites that he captured during his visit.
Now, I can’t claim to understand what’s behind the weird cycle of things that led to that 1st black and white hitting my hands. But I can’t help but feel like the cycle has come a little further around when we got together with the kids to do some dumb bicycle stuff the other weekend and I snapped this shot of Mike and his boys.
Maybe it’s time to revisit a few of the other shots Mike took on his visit. I’ll have to look around… Thanks again dude!