seaway at sunset

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disobey

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Bull City Bicycles, the video

http://www.vimeo.com/932536

Bull City Bicycles is a project I’ve been working on for close to a year now. Digging through archives for photographs and history on Durham’s cycling community, I stumbled upon H. Lee Waters.

Waters was a studio photographer from Lexington, NC in the early part of the 20th century. During the Great Depression, he shuttered his studio and hit the road to earn a living. He owned a 16mm film camera and a projector. He traveled to towns (117 in all) throughout NC, SC, VA, and TN; set up his camera; and captured street life on film. He would return home to edit each film, then revisit the town with a final cut. He presented his films in local movie houses, charging admission for townsfolk to see themselves on the silver screen. Footage from his visits to Durham are collected together under the name “H. Lee Waters Durham: 1937 — 1942.”

The Durham Business and Professional Chain produced “Negro Durham Marches On” in 1948. It remains one of the only sources of motion-picture documentation of the Hayti community.

The footage in Bull City Bicycles comes from these two films. A VHS copy of each is available at the Durham County Library. You can read more about H. Lee Waters here.

My film is a work in progress, and I’ll continue to update it (and this site as well) when there is something new to share. I owe some special thanks to the Linda A. Ironside Fund for the Arts Award from Triangle Community Foundation for making it possible for me to continue working on this project.

For now, enjoy the throwback to the ’30s.

I have seen the light…

and so has the City.

Ninth Street bike rack

The City Racks bike racks are finally being installed. The one pictured above sits just outside The Regulator Bookshop. Look for one near you.

The Durham Bike and Ped Advisory Commission website has some photos of a few others.

Anyone who’s happy about this can email thanks to Dale McKeel,Durham’s bicycle and pedestrian transportation planner.

Asheville’s bike racks

Below are two photos of Asheville’s city-wide bike rack design. The racks range in size (width) from supporting six bikes to two, each with an “ordinary” on top. While these are not the most functional design for bike racks, they are beautiful, well-used (it was rare to see one without a bike locked to it), and complement the sense of history and community that downtown Asheville imbues.img_7938.png
outside the Battery Park Hotel

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outside the Orange Peel

Dale McKeel, Durham’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Coordinator, says that installation of Durham’s city-wide bike racks begins tomorrow, April 8th. Read more about Durham’s City Racks program here.

wide angle lens

Just testing out shots with a borrowed wide-angle lens one morning…

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I’m impressed and am considering purchasing one.

tomorrow, reception for Bull City Bicycles

Tomorrow (Friday) evening, come look at the present through the past.

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Says Dave Wofford…

Reception — Friday, March 21; 6-9pm …
B U L L C I T Y B I C Y C L E S
by guest curator Phillip Barron.

Bull City Bicycles gathers historic and contemporary photography of bicycles in Durham. A celebration of the aesthetic simplicity, utility, and joy of bicycles, this exhibit documents Durham’s sense of place from two wheels. Phillip Barron is a writer and photographer living in Durham. His column on Durham’s bicycling community, The Outspokin’ Cyclist, appears monthly in The Herald Sun. Sources of photography include The Durham County Library, The Herald Sun, Duke University archives, The Smithsonian Institution, the North Carolina State Archives, as well as Barron’s own photographs.

Full press release with more details…
http://www.nicomachus.net/bcac/BCB_press_release.pdf

We are part of the official Smart Commute challenge. You bike here, you get a free beer.

Or, check out the website for the exhibit here.

retread

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Gallery’s open…

C’mon in.

After last night’s Critical Mass, we invited folks back to check out the show.

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Stop by Bull City Arts Collaborative any Friday from 12 — 2pm or by appointment to see it in person. Call Dave Wofford, 949-4847, to set up a time.

OR, stop by on Friday, March 21st, 6 — 9pm for a Third Friday/Culture Crawl reception.

For those of you so unlucky as not to live in Durham, I’ve made a website. Check it out here…

Bull City Bicycles — art show

March 7 - 28, 2008, Bull City Bicycles gathers historic and contemporary photography of bicycles in Durham, NC. A celebration of the aesthetic simplicity, utility, and joy of bicycles, this show documents Durham’s sense of place from two wheels.

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Sources of photography include The Herald Sun, The Durham County Library, The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, The Smithsonian Institution, the North Carolina State Archives, as well as my own photographs.

Visit http://nicomachus.net/bcac/ or http://www.bullcityarts.org/ for more details, or download the press release.

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