171: Storytime.

Il Centenario - Una Storia
(The 100th Giro - A Story)

Photos:
Dan Sharp

Story:
Joe Staples
Max Erdenberger
Jeremy Dunn

Take a look at it one more time. It is a little sped, up, but that is just because I know you want to actually get one for yourself. Spend a little time with it. Because this is what this art deserves. But think about the bicycle races that you have been to while you watch it. Think about what it feels like to attend them.



You wake up in the morning and head out to the spot where you know you can watch the race unfold. If you live somewhere like France, or in this case Italy, others may be doing the same thing. Getting in their cars and driving out to similar spots. You will know some of them by their Faema supporters jackets, scarfs, or maybe a cycle cap. On the other hand if you are living somewhere in the Midwestern United States and you are heading out to watch bike racing you might be doing it alone.

Either way, find a spot where you know the race will pass and wait.

Then the race will come. Sometimes it will be followed by the sound of a helicopter, but it will always have a car or motorcycle out front leading the way. Hopefully you are on a mountaintop and get more than a passing glimpse of this spectacular parade.


At the finish line everyone is waiting. Everyone that has come from miles around are all gathered to welcome their hero, whomever it may be, into their arms. The others slink away to try and come back and do it again the next day.

And then as you return to your home via your car, a train or three cafes you are left with those images. Those brief and hopefully vivid memories of the day.


----------------------------------------------

The real reason why I was psyched to go to Dan Sharp's Show the other night was a little more selfish than I made it out to be. And maybe that is wrong. You see, I was involved in the creation of this printed piece that you see in the video. Mr. Joe Staples told me of his idea to help Dan Sharp create a piece with his photos from his trip to Italy (I might be wrong here, but there was something like 5,000 photos that they started with.) And this little beauty (the above publication) is the result.

So, Joe together with Max Erdenberger went through the process of selecting photos that told this story of the daily attending of a race. This is the pared down version of what really went into it, but I would only confuse you with their ruckus tale of mathmatics combined with really, really good taste.* Aside: One of the cool things is that they did this with the entire collection of Giro photos from this year, making all kinds of small stories come out along the way.

Then they went back through (and this is where I got to come in and help) and started to flesh out the story that was to be told through this piece. I didn't really help all that much aside from pointing to photos and saying "Yes! I love that photo" (which was a lot) and "Hrm, I don't know if that works here?"

The result is Il Centenario - Una Storia and it is pretty damn awesome.

Get one: ampersandvintage@mac.com ask for Myles.

And stay tuned while we try to find another venue to show these photos as Vanilla had to get back to work...ha!


Max's Twitter photo alone would shame both Lemond and Millar into giving back their entire Oakley collections.

(also, this is the first Vanilla Sacha White built)

170: Postcards from Italy

The Vanilla Workshop housed the photos of Dan Sharp Friday evening. His photos from the 2009 Giro d'Italia is the setting for a pretty awesome exploration of not only the Italian bike racing experience, but also a study of his surroundings while in Italy.

In early May, Mr. Sharp headed out to Italy with nothing more than a few cameras and a plan to follow the Giro as it wound around through this small country. It was pretty fun to follow his travels through his (and Ira's) Flickr page (as following a pro race can prove to be pretty time consuming) but it was even more exciting to see these photos printed on a larger scale.



It was great to see the photos hanging next to the tools in the shop as well. A sort of constant reminder of what goes into making the bicycles that are being raced. Maybe not these exact ones, but definitely along the lines of perfomace bicycles. This is after all where the race specific Speedvagen bicycles are made.


These photos do a good job of pacing themselves out as well. Open roads, mist covered forests and the huge vistas that are brought on by the Dolomites are reminders that we are still in Italy. Then we see the familiar kits that are seen throughout. That candor captured with some of the Astana riders (and Johan in particular) are nice as Lance is somewhat an afterthought in this story. As every cycling newsoutfit every where had to tell the story of big L it is pretty cool to see what was going on with everyone else.

The waiting, and waiting only to have the riders whiz by in a manner of seconds. Pack up your vehicle and try to find another spot, if you are lucky. Well, Dan must be lucky because in the span of 21 days this man captured more than a few moments that help define what this race is all about.


One should note that Dan also has some of these Giro photos appear in the 2009 Rouleur Photo Annual, of which the opening ceremony took place a few short weeks ago. This should further cement Sharp as a photographer to keep an eye on in the Cycling world. As one of the founding photographers of the Rapha Continental (and also my first glimpse at it when he and DWP helped me with my Embrocation booth at Nahbs) and a regular contributor to the Nike and Nau camps he certainly has more than enough expertise to rely on.



The other really cool thing about the show was that Dan had on hand his own little printed story of the trip. Such a great way to display his great photos. But the interesting thing about this is the story told within. Joe Staples (whom I know you have seen here before) and Max Erdenberger (whom I would just plain like to see more) created the the story that plays out through these pages. Somehow I was lucky to get a credit on this as well, but all I did was to help them choose the photos that helped tell this story. (More on that later).

I can tell, you are now wondering where you can get ahold of this little publication yourself. Dan was selling them for $20 a piece and only printed 1oo. Pretty amazing little stocking stuffer if you ask me. If you are into that sort of thing. Me, I am.

Myles (ampersandvintage@mac.com) over at Ampersand might be able to help out in that arena. I stopped by his booth at the Publication Fare this afternoon and he had them in stock. If you are in PDX and looking to pick up copies of this, Embrocation, or Rouleur he carries them all (and I have been trying to get him to branch out and carry some other, weirder cycling and sports publications...hint hint...).