Return of the Drunken Bicycle

Green Moskvich (almost as good as a Lada) in Odessa, Ukraine, All photos 2018, ©Frank Ward

In June, I had my first visit to the former Soviet Union since 2015. It was a joy to return to the land of the Drunken Bicycle (pictured above in Kiev, Ukraine), and wonderful to revisit Ukraine where my Drunken Bicycle photo project began in 2001. The drunken bicycle is my name for a bicycle geared to turn the front wheel in the opposite direction from the direction the driver turns the handlebars. It is confusing by design. For a small fee bystanders are offered a big award to navigate the bicycle for a short distance. See more about the bicycle and my show on the bottom of this page.

Back Alley, Kiev, Ukraine.

On a Walking Street in Brest, Belarus.

Belarus is a country known for its adherence to Soviet era values and culture. Like Ukraine, it is changing fast. Above, the joy of young lovers is interrupted by a call on the smartphone, and the distraction by this uninvited photographer sticking his wide angle lens in their faces.

Applying Lipstick, Odessa, Ukraine.

I was so happy to see this woman not talking on a smartphone. I seem unable to make a picture on the street without photographing a cellphone interaction. Look in the background of the bicycle picture and you see 2 people on their phones. The woman in pink on the left of the couple above is also operating a phone.

Soviet Television from 1952, Odessa, Ukraine.

I shouldn’t complain about advancing technology as it allows us all to wander the streets with handheld cameras. I wish I photographed more people on the streets in the 1980s with their boom boxes. I was a wannabe teenager in the early 60s with a transistor radio bigger than an iPhone Plus in my ear, with a single earplug.

The above TV stimulated memories of my family’s first television with its 8 inch black and white screen isolated within a huge standing console. I won’t complain about smartphones, just my pictures of smartphones. I embrace the fact that I live in the age of communications technology. Bring on the EyeCamera.

There are still a few days left to participate in the  SocialDocumentaty.net Call for Entries. The deadline is July 13th. I am on the SDN Advisory Board and will see if I can get that deadline extended a bit. If you don’t have a portfolio, but you have an interest, visit this link to join SDN at no charge.