I quite like trade shows. From the Motor shows of the 1980s and 1990s in Earls Court and camera shows of similar vintage I think of the classics I’ve been fortunate to see unveiled, from EOS1’s and autofocus being taken up to Escort Cosworths with picnic table/ bench seat rear wings asking for a cuppa and a bun to be rested on them. I know they’re renowned as soulless captive days to many and I imagine working one is hard work but the one thing they do well is put most of my clients and friends from the cycling industry I call a family and home in one place at the same time and enable so much connection, many ideas, both the great and the impromptu have been born at shows like Eurobike, the enormous global cycling mothership that descends on a somewhat under prepared infrastructure otherwise known as sleepy Friedrichtshafen on the German/ Austrian border.
Last July I went with the usual intention of catching up with the friends and family of cycling and lining up what adventures we were to embark on for the coming year as I usually do, but before heading off to look at yet more new and shiny bicycles, a familiar sensation sidetracked my attention that didn’t fully return to two wheels for three days.
A Rhodesian Ridgeback wandered over and licked my knee then flopped on my feet and went to sleep while I just queued for a cup of tea and I started to see the show in a different and friendly, if slightly smelly way.
So I had my meetings, planned our plans and took the temperature for our launch into the house of cycling arena with the Maison des Sabots Rouges, but i also pointed my camera downwards at faces amongst the feet on the blue carpet looking up at me rather than at walls and bike stands and set pieces.
Four legged rather than two wheeled, here are the photographs I made at Eurobike 2018. All of them.
I really like that Eurobike allows dogs, paradoxically it adds an element of humanity to the business nature of a trade fair. I only wish now I had made note of where each dog was visiting so as to label them as visitors to certain stands.
Thanks for looking.