ABOUT ME

I'm OBSESSED with cycling

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On July 16, 1984, Luis Herrera, “the Little Gardener of Fusagasugá”, marked a milestone for national sport by becoming the first Colombian to win a stage of the Tour de France. I was an 8 year old child glued to the news of the race with a greater excitement than that of seeing the cyclists, since my father was there with them. He was in charge of dealing with the team's logistics and for two years he went back and forth to Europe with that first batch of beetles.

From one of his trips, he brought me as a gift a BMX bike that became an extension of my body. I spent countless hours of my childhood testing the resistance of that device on the streets of the neighborhood. Learning about fun, friendship and freedom.

 

As I became a teenager, my interest in bicycles faded and only 20 years later, tired of the unsustainable traffic in the cities, I reconnected with this perfect vehicle. I started looking for brand name bikes but thanks to my insatiable curiosity I discovered on Alejandro Bustamante's Flickr page a photo of a bicycle with a brand unknown to me: tinno.

 

Don Agustín Hincapié, or “Tinno” to his friends, not only built my dream bike, he also let me document the whole process and this was the beginning of my obsession with cycling. My initial intention was to use it as a means of transport, but as I traveled through the city without traffic, I reconnected with it and pedaling the streets was once again that fun activity to do with friends and feel free.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bicycles, and cycling in all its variety, became the central theme of my work as a photographer. I started a photo reportage on urban cycling and its subcultures and then moved on to road cycling, downhill, mountain biking, in short, anything that had to do with wheels, cranks, grease, sweat and suffering. Even my trips started to revolve around this theme and in the photo workshops I occasionally take, I always try to carry on my photographic essay.

Photographing competitive cycling has always challenged me in one way or another, and I value immensely the lessons I have learned from this. There's a long wait for fleeting moments, so the first commandment is "thou shall take full advantage of every opportunity".
The level of intensity in photographing cycling can only be compared to the level of intensity of the sport itself. It requires physical and mental preparation, a bit of luck, logistics skills and above all a lot of improvising skills.

I'm interested in images that speak of a moment, that take me back to what I felt being there and that reveal details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
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I'm in love with Colombia. It's so mountainous and gorgeous and no wonder why it's home to some of the best cyclists in the world. It is my life mission to show this beauty through my photos.

I've traveled to a lot of places thanks to cycling photography, I hope this list goes on forever:
 

• UCI road world championships in Italy and Spain.

• UCI Tour Colombia.

• Vuelta a Colombia.

• Urban Downhill in Manizales.

• Keirin in Tokyo.

• UCI BMX world cup in Bogotá.

• Urban Cycling in Amsterdam.

• Travelers in Alto de Letras.

• Russian Chicanos in St Petersburg.

• High altitude Gran Fondo in Cusco.
   

Some of my photos have been published in printed magazines and exhibited in galleries.

I've also been invited to a couple talks about cycling photography.

I'm a long-time collaborator of FUNchaves, Esteban Chaves's nonprofit, and I also shoot for german sports photo agency Sportograf.

I'm the founder of an alternative sports photography collective: La Vuelta es Así