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Ghosts on the Street

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This summer I want to make a book documenting the routes of North American Bicycle couriers. I had planned on traveling to 15 metropolitan cities spread all across North America but it my current budget only covers the east coast. The money raised by this fund will go directly to the costs of traveling to each city.

A rough itinerary of my trip consists as follows:
June 1-6 Richmond VA
June 7-13 Washington DC
June 14-20 Baltimore MD
June 21-27 Philadelphia PA
June 28-July 4 Boston MA
July 5-11 Montreal CAN
July 12-18 Toronto CAN
July 19-25 Chicago IL
July 26-August 1 Milwaukee WI
August 2-8 Minneapolis MN
August 9-15 Seattle WA
August 16-22 Portland OR
August 23-29 San Francisco CA
August 30-September 4 Los Angeles CA
Sept 5-9 Denver CO

I plan to ride with different bicycle couriers throughout the business week. While riding alongside, I will GPS record the route we take as the courier picks up and drops off packages throughout the city as well as document their day by taking photos of each courier on the move. It is important for me to record all the little details of each route because alleyways and small passages often provide the unknown shortcuts to the faster and more knowledgeable ways to move through and around the city.

I have been working as a bicycle courier in NYC and documenting the global courier industry for the past 6 years. By riding along side each courier for a day, I will gain insight into each individuals style of moving through their respective cites, and it is this individuality that makes each route/map specific and original to the courier. This route can never be replicated: the pick ups and drop offs are always different times and different locations every single day. Coupled with the rapidly changing infrastructure and new developments of the center of these metropolitan cities where our job takes us the most; some of these streets and routes may not be accessible or even possible in the years to come. This is why it is important for me to complete this project now and showcase these invisible infrastructures created by bicycle couriers before they are vanquished.

There is a form of embodied knowledge gained through knowing the layout of the city, that only someone who rides a bicycle through them everyday possesses. The body knows before the mind when to take a quick left or right to avoid an accident and continue on route. Bicycle couriers traverse the longest reaches of our continually expanding cities to hand deliver parcels that otherwise could not be delivered in time. When combined with the fitness level and fearlessness required to maneuver through some of the toughest traffic situations, worst weather conditions, as well as all the other "perks" of the service industry; you really have to give it up to the bicycle couriers who work day in and day out. The fact that people are entrusting us, the couriers, with their most important items, makes this job such a responsibility yet at the same time, so rewarding. It is these aspects of time, distance, and bodily knowledge of your own fitness level is what the courier’s job is all about: Knowing the shortest distance to any point in the city and also knowing approximately how long it will take to arrive there. As the cities continue to grow, and people get pushed further and further apart, it is the job of the bicycle courier to connect all these people back together.


"Messengers eliminate the distance between people that space creates. So we kinda shrink the world. You’re handing it to me, I'm handing it to them; that space in between just disappears."

-Greg Ugalde, Veteran Bike Messenger in NYC


Throughout this project, I am constantly traveling to each place and personally meeting each of these bicycle couriers, keeping this human-to-human contact alive. On a greater scale, I am connecting people all around North America through the respect I have for this occupation of a bicycle courier. After working for a week and collecting data in each city, I will be sitting on the bus/train for hours at a time, giving me ample time to write and reflect on the experiences had in each prior city. I plan to map out the GPS data from each courier and transform this data into a book containing photos of each courier I worked with along with their routes for the workday. Out of this exploration I hope to culminate a body of work that could be understood and appreciated regardless of whether one knows what the job of a bicycle courier entails.


Here is a link to my website displaying past projects as well as this current one

Thanks for taking the time to read thus far. Any amount of support is greatly appreciated and donors will be acknowledged in the completed book.

Organizer

Brandon Lockfoot
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY

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