John Glassie

the life of an eccentric in an age of change

A man of misconceptions

This mournful but pleasing collection features many of the best photographs of bicycles locked to poles ever taken. Shot using an old-fashioned 35mm Nikon, and in many cases after waiting days for alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulations to take effect, the photos here follow in the tradition of John James Audubon, Bernd and Hilla Becher, the Peterson Field Guides, and The Observer's Book of Steam Locomotives. Bicycles Locked to Poles began in early 2001, when a magenta arrow - spray painted on the sidewalk by a representative of the electrical utility - pointed directly to the sadly bent, Dali-esque wheel of a bicycle on the photographer's street. Glassie passed by every day for months, until one day it was gone. He has been documenting bicycles locked to poles, bent, broken and otherwise, in and around his East Village neighborhood of New York ever since. This volume presents a careful selection from Glassie's collection of over a thousand color photographs, as well as a graphical guide to present, damaged and missing bicycle parts, and a quote from Marvin Minsky's The Society of Mind. Bicycles Locked to Poles is a rare treasury for anyone interested in bikes, poles, locks, or the forgotten artifacts of the urban landscape.

Photographs

Bicycles Locked to Poles

A Scientific American Best Science Book of 2012 An Atlantic Wire Best Book of 2012 A New York Times Book Review “Editor's Choice” The “fascinating” (The New Yorker) story of Athanasius Kircher, the eccentric scholar-inventor who was either a great genius or a crackpot . . . or a bit of both. The interests of Athanasius Kircher, the legendary seventeenth-century priest-scientist, knew no bounds. From optics to music to magnetism to medicine, he offered up inventions and theories for everything, and they made him famous across Europe. His celebrated museum in Rome featured magic lanterns, speaking statues, the tail of a mermaid, and a brick from the Tower of Babel. Holy Roman Emperors were his patrons, popes were his friends, and in his spare time he collaborated with the Baroque master Bernini. But Kircher lived during an era of radical transformation, in which the old approach to knowledge—what he called the “art of knowing”— was giving way to the scientific method and modern thought. A Man of Misconceptions traces the rise, success, and eventual fall of this fascinating character as he attempted to come to terms with a changing world. With humor and insight, John Glassie returns Kircher to his rightful place as one of history’s most unforgettable figures.

John Glassie

About

Books

Join the club