The A939 from Lecht to Aviemore (23rd June 2014)
After pedalling for hours in torrential rain through the Cairngorms of Scotland, the sun broke through and I had this lovely view. I stopped for a breather and took this photograph on my camera-phone. Little did I know that I was actually taking a picture of the very bend and patch of gravel that I was to skid on and crash just 5 minutes later.
Picking myself up I realised I had broken my arm quite badly. I was cycling on my own, there was no phone signal, but fortunately a passing motorist was on hand to assist and take me to hospital (thank you Donald!) Not a life threatening injury, but a significant one that still effects me on a daily basis, primarily because I can’t straighten my arm anymore - I function pretty normally, it’s just something that is always there - but as my surgeon pointed out… you can reach your mouth and your back passage!
A year or so after the accident I decided that I wanted to revisit the bend and try and figure out what happened, it’s all a bit of a blur. One minute I was riding along, and not particularly quickly, next I’d just lost control of the bike and hit the deck. The road was falling away from me, my brakes were wet and not really functioning, consequently I was accelerating down the hill, to make things worse this was against an awkward camber. Increasing the pressure on my brakes only caused me to skid, I had to release to gain control - which in turn caused me to accelerate further! I realised I was quite literally in a downward spiral, out of control and going straight for the crash barrier, any turn of the bars to direct me away from the barrier would have caused me to topple. Attempting to unclip my right foot upset this precarious balance and my front wheel just went, I hit the deck, full on, right on the point of my elbow. Ouch!!! Technical name for my injury is a displaced olecranon (see pics at end… nice!)
Revisiting the bend was the start of a photographic journey round Scotland.
I have an old Mamiya C330 twin lens reflex camera, it was the camera I used when I studied for my degree in photography at Napier College in Edinburgh, this was my camera of choice for this project.
The idea of shooting on film appealed to me, not least because it is the process I know. I grew up shooting on film, there was no digital imaging when I first developed a roll of black and white film back in 1977, so a genuine engagement with the process, it also seemed like a good antidote to the glut of digital imagery that bombards us today. With this in mind I limited myself to just one roll of 12 exposures - hence the title ’12 Scottish Exposures’