Bicycles Locked to Poles

by John Glassie

This mournful but pleasing collection features many of the best photographs of bicycles locked to poles ever taken.

Shot using an old-fashioned 35mm Nikon, and in many cases after waiting days for alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulations to take effect, the photos here follow in the tradition of John James Audubon, Bernd and Hilla Becher, the Peterson Field Guides, and The Observer's Book of Steam Locomotives.

Bicycles Locked...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932416250
• ISBN13: 9781932416251
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: McSweeney's
• Length: 87 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Coffee Table Book

Big fan of McSweeney's, and even bigger fan of Bikes, so when I saw an ad for this book I ordered it. I absolutely love it. The photographs are insightfull. The neighborhood and space the bikes exist in are as interesting as the bikes themselves. The legend on the inside cover is a great touch, and the Marvin Minsky quote is one I will keep for good.

a moving collection

Bicycles Locked to Poles is a wonderful book to give to a friend or family member. It is artistic and understated. The way in which Mr. Glassie has sequenced the photographs gives the book real heart and poignancy. Mr. Glassie's focus on the small block radius of the East Village reminds of how much transpires and how much is easily forgotten in a city like New York.

Beat-up bikes get a second life

New York City is a chaotic place. It's unforgiving and indifferent but alive with humanity and creative energy. The front lines of this daily struggle between the hopeful and harsh happen right here on the streets and sidewalks. Through bicycles locked to poles, Mr. Glassie captures the casualties of this struggle, showing us the relics of forgotten bikes overwhelmed by New York, yet physically bound to it. He's somehow found a tiny piece of every New Yorker's story and painted a portrait of how defeat can be a thing of beauty. And plus, lots of neat pics of banged-up bikes!

bicycles locked to poles

The most poignant visual social commentary about the real struggle between evolution and intelligent design. Put another way: A humorous catalogue of the wear and tear of urban life...on bikes. The photos run the gamut: gritty, sad, cute, weird, witty, bare, depressing, poetic, and charming. Take it too seriously and you'll miss the point.

Dead Pirates against the Mast

A wonderfully quirky book of photos of those corpses of New York's streets: wrecked bicycles attached to poles. These bikes, stripped to their frames, their tires bent in countless directions, are reminiscent of dead pirates, their skeletons left leaning against their ship's mast. Not a big glossy photo book, but that's probaly intentional:if it were, it would betray the subject. But these pictures are both funny and poignant, and it's one of the rare photography books that you'll want to look at every day.