A popular and common mode of transport in Asia, the bicycle is an object loaded with symbolism and social connotations. In this image, however, it is the way the shape is given a partial framing that gives the composition its strength. The rear wheel, the rack carrying a straw mat and the saddle are isolated against a more or less indistinct architectural background that is nonetheless relatively monumental and captured from a low angle.

The lighter tones delineate the buildings; the dark tones or the shadows pick out the components of the bicycle and the lateral or more distant framing. The wheel suggests the momentary capture of the passage, movement and circulation of an individual mode of transport that the photographer wasn’t in time to frame in its entirety; or the selective capture of that mode of transport when stationary. But its point of view positions it far below the eye line in its quest for formal impact.

The title informs us that Lemos wanted to recall a worker who massaged cows to make the meat more tender, to overcome the effects of a lack of grass on its quality, and the animals’ teats to ease the flow of milk: the man to whom he refers used to travel on the bicycle captured in the image.

Leonor Nazaré
Curator at the CAM