On Sunday, November 8th, John Bentham, professional photographer and advanced DPA instructor in New York City, led a motorcycle photography workshop riding a Triumph Speed Triple. Along the way we tested stills and video from a new Panasonic GF1 mounted right on the bike. Both the cameras and the bike kicked ass. Triumph, the venerable English motorcycle manufacturer generously offered to loan us a sparkling new 2009 Speed Triple for the road trip. These are aggressively powered, great looking bikes, a mix between classic and a nasty street look, with chrome against sexy dark graphite paint.
The class met Sunday morning in the DPA Tribeca studio where John presented his Daytona Bike Week series in a dynamic slide show set to music. Blown up large using a Panasonic projector, students were able to see the dynamics of a photograph revealed. This was followed by a discussion of photographs tailored to shooting documentary and location photography, followed by a Q&A session and a rundown of our itinerary. Then we headed out for a 5 hour ride through NJ and New York along picturesque back roads providing many opportunities for photography, with John offering technical and aesthetic advice throughout the day. The focus of the workshop was shooting on the fly and finding interesting photos on location, which often means making something out of nothing. We covered the complications of shooting moving subjects, stopping and blurring action, and shooting from a moving motorcycle for which John brought along the Trek Tech Optimount for mounting cameras to a bike.
John Bentham’s introduction to motorcycling was a veritable trial by fire. Having secured a job for UK Bike Magazine, shooting a story about Boss Hoss Cycles in Dyersburg Tennessee, John decided he had probably secure a motorcycle license prior to the trip. John took an intensive 3 day motorcycle course offered by Tramas’s Motorcycle School in New York City and a week later was on a 3000 mile road trip from Toronto, Canada to Memphis, Tennessee, and back. With only one mishap and no permanent injuries enroute John felt pretty comfortable on a motorcycle upon his return.
John also feels pretty comfortable using a camera. Growing up, his father worked for Kodak and there were always a camera around. On John’s fourteenth birthday his father bought him his first SLR. Now John is an award-winning photographer specializing in documentary and portraiture. John has photographed such public figures as Harrison Ford, Philip Glass, SEAL, Uma Thurman, The Black Eyed Peas, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. Teutul of Orange County Choppers, the late Indian Larry, legendary motorcycle builder and the immortal Evel Knievel. John’s clients and publications include AUDI, Ericsson, Mercedes-Benz, Newsweek, The New York Times, People Magazine, Pfizer, Rolling Stone, Sony, Time, United Technologies and Vanity Fair.
John is interested in sub-cultures and his documentary work reflects this fascination. In addition to many travel and location shoots, John has photographed burlesque dancers, Native American Powwows, drag queens and underground NYC clubs. John’s Bike Week series, which he started shooting in 1996, is a behind-the-scenes look at the annual biker rally in Daytona Beach, Fla. These photographs have been exhibited in a number of galleries including a one-person show at Galapagos Art Space, a group show at The Bertha & Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, a group show at The Barrett Art Center and during TOAST, the annual Tribeca Artists Studio Tour. Bike Week, John’s second book, is currently in production and Jay Leno, an avid motorcyclist, said about this work, “The photographs are wonderful. John has a great eye for the whole biker culture.” Cycle Canada Magazine recently ran one of John’s Bike Week photos as a double page spread.
The 2009 Triumph Speed Triple motorcycle was courtesy of Triumph Motorcycles (America), Matt O’Conner at McRae, and John and Donald at Creative Film Cars. Triumph Motorcycles is the British motorcycle marque that produces a wide range of sport, cruiser and touring motorcycles that are all designed to provide outstanding motorcycling experiences. Triumph offers a blend of design, character and performance that result in truly distinctive motorcycles. First established in 1902 and now located in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, Triumph has always set the pace for category winning machines.
