YORKSHIRE

A day on the roads

By VITTI Cycling

We were very fortunate to be able to work with photographer Matt Randall on a series of images capturing cycling in the countryside of Yorkshire.

It is a rare thing when you look through Instagram and you see something that speaks to you. One day while scanning through our social feed we came across some amazing black and white work by photographer Matt Randall. Matt's work speaks volumes about this cycling life, it speaks to the in-between moments during rides that tell the story in a way the ordinary image never can. We immediately messaged him and convinced him to spend a day in the wilds of Yorkshire shooting for us. We are fans of his work and truly appreciate his ability to document cycling in a real, timeless way. We hope you enjoy these images and the accompanying interview with Matt.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been shooting for? Why photography? What is it about the medium that speaks to you?

I'm from Yorkshire in the UK, I've lived here all my life, I think it's a lovely part of the country and I'm very happy here still. I've been taking photos since I was a teenager, starting out with holiday shots really, nothing 'arty' shall we say. I didn't think anything more about photography until I got myself a Polaroid Image camera back when I was in my mid 20s. Looking back now I think that's when I first started thinking about photography as something other than holiday photos and started to consciously consider the composition of an image. I wasn't taking pictures of people back then though. I loved the Lo-Fi type quality of the Polaroids and I wasn't even really thinking about the light, just what was going to be in the frame. All the photos were of static objects so I took my time over the compositions, that was and still is my thing. Photography is a kind of meditation for me, when I am behind the lens of my camera and I am passionate about what I am shooting I am totally in the moment and I lose myself a little in it. It's hard to put into words really, which in a way I think is a good thing because I can't totally pigeon-hole and define the process so it remains special. I do find a real pleasure in that and it's an important aspect in my life.

Do you prefer BW over color? Why?

Generally speaking I do prefer BW over colour, yes. Firstly because things become kind of timeless to me in a way and seem to have more soul. Also because a black and white image has only monotone shades is visually easier for the eye to process, yet can have a lot of depth at the same time. I'm not saying that colour photography isn't these things, I'm just saying what makes sense to me and feels natural.

What about shooting cycling interests you? How does it relate to your other work?

Never just one thing, I love the details and the riders getting ready and also the riders in their landscape.

What were you hoping to achieve in the series?

Really to do great work for VITTI but also work I could be proud of for myself which represented my style and not be constrained by someone else's vision. That's one of the reasons it was a pleasure to shoot this series , you trusted my style and capability as a photographer which gives me strength to go away and work freely and not always be thinking 'is this what I should shoot?'

Do you ride? If so, what bike do you ride? How often do you get out?

I do indeed ride myself, I ride a Hampsten Gran Paradiso Titanium. I don't get out quite as often as I used to these days, perhaps a couple of times a week.

What do you do when you're not shooting pictures?

I ride my road bike, enjoy the photography books I have collected, watch movies and work on my house and garden. There's plenty to do! :)

What is your favorite thing about the part of the country you live in?

I live in the countryside now so the peace and quiet, the small country lanes for cycling and open fields for hiking within footsteps of our house.

What was the thing you were surprised by when shooting this?

The shots in the pub I took at the end of the shoot. I never use flash but this time I took my flash along to take a chance and see how things would turn out and I really love the results.

What’s your favorite picture from the series?

That's a hard one to answer but I do really like the solo shot of Jasper in the Vitti cap in black and white that Leica picked out and ran on their social media feed.

Did you plan some of the images or let them unfold naturally?

I do plan, particularly the moving shots. Having no autofocus means I shoot everything manually so I look for what I consider a good landscape in advance then place the moving riders within the composed shot. Obviously because of the nature of photography there is the joy of happenstance but I don't rely on that 100% as I can't afford to come away with nothing when working for a client.

When shooting the series how did the guys influence the choices you made behind the camera? Those purely photographic unplanned moments really stand out for us in this series. Which of those moments were you the most excited by and did you recognize it when it was happening or afterwards in the edit? … sometimes those things need a bit of space and time to see properly, did you find this true for this series, or did you know it when you hit the shutter?

Because these cyclists are all racers and are the real thing, that influences the shots from the get-go because they all look so natural both on the bike and in the Vitti cycling kit, so there isn't a struggle to try and make a photograph something it isn't. I am drawn particularly to the portraiture aspect of cycling photography so I really hunt for images of riders individually, the more detailed 'getting ready' shots of a single rider for example. I find that for me, shooting cyclists individually really adds power to the image, particularly when framed in a negative space or uncluttered background.

What’s your favorite camera?

My favourite camera is the one I shoot with all the time, it's a Leica M9.

Do you prefer film over digital? If so, do you find yourself shooting film for yourself often?

Other than my earlier Polaroids I have only ever shot digitally so I'm not really in a position to have an opinion on film photography - I can't say!

Who are your photographic Icons?

I enjoy so many photographers but I do have a couple that are particularly special to me. Anton Corbijn is hands down my favourite photographer. He is the reason I really picked up the camera I use today fell in love with black and white photography. Seeing those black and white images of Depeche Mode in my late teens made me fall in love with his photographs before I even knew who he was. That combination of amazing music and photography made me realise the power of a photograph. I was lucky enough to meet him once and he told me that for him, 'imperfection is his perfection' . It instantly made absolute sense to me and I have never forgotten that. The other is William Eggleston, a totally different to Anton of course! His colour vision of the world, photographing the banality of everyday life is something that get really appeals to me. The search for beauty in the mundane is something I strive for myself.

Who are your cycling heroes?

Greg Lemond, Berhard Hinault and Andy Hampsten. Seeing those guys ride in the mid-80s Tour de France when I was about 13 or 14 along with the movie 'American Flyers' made me want to get a road bike so bad I can't tell you! I just wanted (and probably still do) to be like those guys haha

Did you study photography formally? If so where? What was useful about your studies and what wasn’t? Photo education only goes so far and I think there is a need to discover the word anew afterwards, was it that way for you or was there a different path your work undertook? If so can you talk about that?

I have never studied formally at all, except maybe to learn bit about focussing and exposures on my Leica. I had to do that because nobody else I knew had one. I'm not sure if being 'taught' photography is just someone else telling me how they think I should take pictures? Then that end up eroding my own style? I could be wrong of course but that's why I'm a little reticent to seek out formal photographic education. My education is from looking through the images of the photographers I love.

You also do a lot of street photography in color. How do you reconcile the two? Are they two different beasts entirely or do you draw influence from one to the other?...Of course you are the same photographer either way but can you talk a bit about how they are different to you or the same and how you decide to either shoot with color in mind or with BW in mind? Is it a conscious decision when you leave the house to make a certain type of picture?

I do really enjoy taking street photography images in colour, yes! I find it very attractive because it is another way of seeing the world. As a photographer (or person!) I don't want to be totally one dimensional though so initially it started as a way of trying new things, trying colour. The subject matter also relies totally on happenstance which is an aspect I love about it, you never know what's around the corner so it's something I can do without having to plan anything. Such serendipity is part of the attraction, when I see something I want to photograph and then manage to capture it how I like it, I get quite excited. It makes me happy. I do think it's a bit of a different beast though, my style of street photography is very about the light, it tends to be early morning or late evening and as these are small moments in the day it makes photographs taken at these times particularly special. As time goes by I have noticed it's influence on my cycling photography particularly when I notice a street object that I can marry with an aspect of cycling. Like let's say, if I saw a cyclist getting ready sat in a bus shelter. Now that is not a photograph I have never 'seen' but that's the sort of thing I mean. When I leave the house to street photograph I certainly have my colour 'head' on though and is a conscious decision to make those kinds of pictures. I find it particularly meditative because I go out alone, it tends to be quiet and it's photography totally on my own terms. It feels very liberating to me.

What are you working on now? Any personal projects in the works that you are excited about?

My street project photography keeps me busy, one day I will make a book but I don't feel quite ready for that yet. You can see my street photos on Instagram under 'Mr_Streetproject' if that's something you think you might be interested in? I don't have a website currently so that could be something I will look into in the future.

One of the things that drew us to you was the documentary aspect of your work and the implied narrative, especially apparent after seeing all the images together. Is this filmic ideal something that you have in mind when shooting?

I would say I am a voyeuristic photographer rather than one that interacts with the subject, I much prefer to be a fly on the wall and taking pictures as they happen... journalistic I suppose. I also enjoy editing my photographs into some kind of story, a start, middle and end. I think of the shoots cinematically in a way and like to tell a story, however loose it may be. I get a lot of pleasure putting my photographs in a certain sequence that makes sense to me. I still find it fascinating why I am drawn to follow one photograph with another. Sometimes the sequence is really obvious and I know understand why, but other times I don't know why one image feels right following another. It's just a feeling, I see those moments as part of the magic of photography.