Bicycle repair.img061, with story

In the alley, the friend helped make a repair so they could continue their ride. This was done with the pliers method common to the times, and the inner city world (check the front wheel).

The story of how it came to be is as interesting as the documentary photo.  

In those days, I would carry a small bag full of lenses for the Hasselblad camera system.  As I traveled the tight narrow roads, of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, I spotted the repair underway.  I stopped, parked, and backtracked, placing me some 50 to 75 feet away, and called to them I was taking their picture, and do me a favor, don't pose for me, just continue what you're doing. (Many a good shot is ruined by the subjects doing what they think you want, and I wanted this to be authentic.)  Of course, it was only polite to announce your presence when taking their image, no matter how close or far away you are, and it often helps avoid a confrontation, as a bonus. 

Taken with a Zeiss 250mm F5.6 Sonnar on Kodak Tri-X 120 roll panchromatic film in 1976.  I chose to isolate them with the long lens, giving a feel of catching the action from afar.  At the time I was using my 16 exposure magazine with black and white film, and I had a chance to take a variety of images while they worked out the repair.  I selected this one because it shows the dependency of the one, with his more experience friend, yet both were involved, one holding, and one wrenching.

Once they finished, since I had already acknowledged my presence, I went up to them to find who they were so I could later send them a print, as a thanks, which I did.

I consider myself lucky to find one Rockwell setting a year, so I was careful to not ruin the image by adding suggestions to them.  What you see is what really happened that day.

eugene spiegel

As I would often do, I turned the camera over to the subjects so they could have fair play and take a picture of he was taking a photo of them.  Curiously this was before I became a cyclist myself, only a few years later.

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This is the outfit that I carried religiously for many years, the rule being always have a camera with you, one I have followed since the 1960s.

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