Behind The Lights – Michael Blann

Put the effort into the context, put the context into the effort. In order to understand Michael Blann’s photographic work, it is necessary to reflect on the ability of a natural glimpse to ennoble the temporary sports effort, and the eternal human effort, and vice versa.

Mont Ventoux

In the English photographer’s shots, nothing is messy, nothing is condensed or claustrophobic, nothing is out of place. The present extends itself into a hypothetical, infinite period, where everything is suspended, where everything is portrayed by the refined eye of what instantly takes on the connotations of a contemporary landscape painter.

Scenario after scenario, peak after peak, Blann immortalizes the maximum expression of cycling, appealing to his sporting and graphic sensibility: a sensibility he has developed over the years on the pedals.

“Cycling is in my veins, it’s a constant in my life. I grew up cycling on the south coast of England, overlooking the sea. At 19 I tried the big leap, going to Australia to pursue the dream of professionalism. After some time, I simply realised I wasn’t good enough to reach certain levels, so I came back home and enrolled at Art College”

During the academic career, Blann develops a passion for printing, becomes fascinated by lithographs and images on paper, begins to process photos and creations of others. Then he decides to take the camera in hand.

“My first reportage became part of my university dissertation. I went to Bulgaria for a week and came back with a series of black and white images. I think my love for photography can be summed up in the over 500 books that are part of my home library”

Entire shelves of printed paper define the multiform influences of Blann’s photography. His vision draws from parallel worlds, even very distant from each other: such as the design one or the advertising universe. So here are tongues of asphalt respectfully cutting through mountain giants, here are tortuous climbs elevated to an epic dimension, here is changing the meaning of an entire cycling race.

Bradley Wiggins

Zwift

The athlete in Blann’s photos doesn’t challenge his colleagues, but instead attacks the unshakeable natural element, he populates it with dignity, he suffers its majestic sensory power. Concepts that are summarised by the snapshots of two masters of photography who have particularly inspired the artistic canon of Blann.

On the one hand, the parallel contexts portrayed by Andreas Gursky: undulating passageways, small buildings full of human ants, streets that paint a desert canvas. On the other hand, the culture of suffering, exalted by definition by the two wheels and honoured by the impactful details of Timm Kolln.

Andreas Gursky – Bahrain, 2005

Andreas Gursky – Klitschko, 1999

“My photography doesn’t explore the simple sporting gesture, it focuses on the human impact on the world, on the footprint we leave on it, on how we populate and interact with a certain space. I don’t like to be inside the action, I prefer to act as an outside eye. This is why so many of my works in other fields see me photographing squares or streets from above, contexts in which the human flow is constant. The mountain sums up this concept perfectly: the roads that cut the peaks embody the idea of ​​the human element grafting itself into the primordial one. My book ‘Mountains’ is obviously dedicated to this element: I wanted to focus on these ‘natural cathedrals’ because, when they’re in contact with man, I believe they reveal a very powerful metaphor. The cyclist who faces a climb is ideally equivalent to the man who overcomes an obstacle that is impossible to deal with”.

Timm Kolln – Andy Schleck

Pont Thibault, Roubaix