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Pedal and snap
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Photographer David Trattles, who has cycled in 60 countries, tells AYESHA MATTHAN cycling is not about pedalling, but about getting great stories
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PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.
FREEZE FRAME David Trattles: ‘Old people have a basketful of stories for you to pick from’
Documentary photographer David Trattles feels that his eyes are too small. Ten years ago, the Canadian, who has not studied photography, took his camera, two film rolls and took off on his bicycle for a 15-day trip in Turkey. He says cheerfully: R
20;It was a great trip, but the pictures were awful.” Then, he went on “more bicycle trips across Asia and got into photography slowly.”
For David, cycling is not about pedalling. “It’s about getting great stories about people who help themselves.” David knows that photography is not just about capturing individuals caught in time and space. “They are people who lead hard lives, and the photographic moment captures the process of their lives.” His photos are then “not news features, but social documentary.” Like the photographs of Muslim women boxers in Kolkata. “It’s not about the fact that they doing a ‘man’s job’, or ‘it’s boxing’, but about why and how they spend one-and-a-half hours everyday, in that club and street in that city.”
If it’s not about the boxers, then it’s about a German cowboy employed to entertain tourists in Calgary. “It’s not in their culture – but they are a community that manages to adapt and survive in a global world.”
He feels that cycling is a great way to meet people. “Most people would travel in air-conditioned trains or planes to their destination. But when I cycle, I get a completely different story as I have more time for people. Cycling is a great door-opener – it helps you interact better with people. They know that I must be serious about my work, and I’ve made an effort to get there.”
“Cycling is also much cheaper! It’s a personal venture for me. I push myself physically and mentally. I work up an appetite for people and their stories.”
David has travelled to 60 countries and he never means to stop pedalling. He’s also worked with AIDS victim who “live in the middle of nowhere” in Africa. “Their journey becomes your journey. You learn what’s important to them — it could be their mother, their land. And this keeps coming back to you.” David believes, “Small stories are the most inspiring. Also, old people have a basketful of stories for you to pick from. It’s important to honour the way you look at the world.”
David likes “simple things and living, and less glory and money”. He doesn’t like cold countries. “For then I’ll have to get a house with central heating and remain there. I like hotter countries like in the Mediterranean region — the people are more sociable, warm and friendly.”
For him, “Kolkata is visually something. There is so much happening all around you — it’s difficult to capture everything.” David says: “I’ve developed this new way of taking photos,” showing a plastic, automatic camera. “One hand is on the cycle bar, and the other holding the camera which I wave around and I get very different images.”
David Trattles, who is exhibiting his photographs titled ‘Out There Canada’ in the city, feels that colour photographs are deceptive. “They take away from the image. It’s easier to be honest in black and white images.” He adds, “In India, the colours are very seductive and crazy.” The exhibition, organised by Tasveer Arts, which captures the fisherman of Newfoundland to the farmers of Ontario is on display till January 23, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. at SUA House, No. 26/1 Kasturba Road Cross. Visit www.davidtrattles.com
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