Sara Baldwin Professeur francaise au marchet, Femme sur Velib

Sara Baldwin

Professeurfrancaise au marchet, Femme sur Velib, and Petit Gargon sur Velib, Paris, France

Digital color prints

Artist Statement

All three of these images are from a body of work that came into being during my time spent in Paris this summer. While bicycles in American cities are often trendy and aestheticized, bicycles in Paris serve simply as a form of transportation, a "mode de vie." As a visitor in the city, I walked everywhere on.foot and sucked up the culture with my eyes. I began to view bicycles as parts of the people themselves, representations of where they are in the city and often times their personalities. There is a phenomenon of public transportation in Paris called "Velib." With a French credit card, people can pick up a bicycle and at one location in the city and deposit the bicycle at an entirely different destination when they are through. There are kiosks for the Velibs every few blocks all over the city. This type of public transportation is revolutionary during a world-wide economic and oil crisis. I promised several people that I would bring this idea back to the U.S. with me. This is what I am doing with my work.