4. 2
The motorcycle in American culture and lore has always been representational of many
things, particularly the notion and sense of freedom and mobility. As an artist, using context
and camera, my intent is to capture and translate a more tangible depiction of that sense —
the ride on the open road, the invigorating and adrenaline high of motoring through mountain
passes or desert straights; wind-blown and dusty jaunts going nowhere, anywhere. It is the
emotional and physical release portrayed by the likes of Jim Stark in “Rebel Without A Cause,”
or Wyatt and Billy in “Easy Rider.” This is work that attempts to render that
free-spirited exhilaration, so the experienced comprehend and identify, and those who have
not, can vicariously, even symbolically. As they say, “Four wheels move the body, two wheels
move the soul.”
My photos often demonstrate the process of innovation and the creativity, showing the
artist and designer at work in the fabrication shop, muscling and molding steel and metal into
various and sundry shapes; genius and craft accounting for the very movement of machine and
man. Like an unfolding story, photos of this process help to comprehend and appreciate these
machines from drawing board design to engineered and assembled artistic marvels themselves.
And like any good story, it helps our understanding of just how incredible the process and
end product can truly be. It is art, depicting it for its own sake. Photo after photo expresses
the design and beauty of these machines, showing various types, makes, models, and how inno-
vation and customization can alter the original and make it even more spectacular. Whether,
as mentioned above, they are captured in the fabrication shop, out on the open road, in a fancy
show room or bustling bike show, my work’s intent is to gain insight and appreciation for how
motorcycles are made as art and enjoyed and machine.
