‘Bicycle portraits’ is a fascinating project by Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler. They travelled across South Africa photographing those who use bicycles as a means of transport. With each photograph they also interviewed the fietser, recording the persons story; when they got their bicycle, what they use it for etc. The portraits were then published in a three volume collection of books. In a very real sense, they captured portraits of fietsers, not just bicycle portraits, and so the books could just as easily have been titled ‘Fietser Portraits’.
An example portrait
The authors Ted talk on the project
The authors speak of their motivation and learnings from the project, illuminating the books even more.
The collection of portraits
The three volume collection of portraits. Luckily, I was able to find used copies on Amazon UK.
How did we find out about these books? We happened to stop at a small hotel and restaurant in Calvinia in the Northern Cape, on our way to Upington. The books were in the reception area. Seemingly, the authors had stayed there on a cycling trip and kindly left copies of the books, a fantastic stroke of luck for us!
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