Author(s): Nicholas Costarides; Mary Richardson

Photography

"Though some of the bikes look as if they would crumble under the weight of a rider, and others have the carefully considered accouterments of an art object, every bike in the book was used on a daily basis. First and foremost, they are modes of transportation, enabled by the city's flat terrain and inspired by those who chose to live in a city that even prior to Hurricane Katrina was economically challenged, yet artistically rich. These photographs, and the accompanying text that lyrically meditates on the significance of the images, show the side of New Orleans that most visitors never saw; they are not about Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest; they are about a city and its residents. It is the power of these bikes scattered throughout the decaying landscape of New Orleans that attracted the authors Nicholas Costarides and Mary Richardson to shoot these photographs. Naturally, the photographs depict how things were given the time they were taken. It is impossible to predict what the future will bring for New Orleans, and New Orleans' Bicycles does not claim to address how the city has changed. What it creates, however, is a nostalgia for how the city was in those months leading up to the hurricane, and hope for those ways to return. A portion of the proceeds from sales of New Orleans' Bicycles will go to a New Orleans community bike project."