Wilbur Working In His Bike Shop
Wright Brothers: Then and Now photography series
This one of the early photographs that Orville took of Wilbur working in one of their bike shops. The historic photograph was taken in 1897 so a few years before they were concentrating their efforts on flight. This is one of my images that was well thought out. I liked the historic photograph and I liked the quote from their nephew. All I had to do was take a photograph inside one of their bike shops and hope they work well together. I went to the bike shop in Dayton, Ohio which is part of the National Park. What I didn’t know is how well the two photographs would fit together. In the historic photograph Wilbur is working on a lathe. At the bike shop there was the actual lathe he had worked on in the old photograph. Many of the tool scattered on the work bench are the Wrights actual tools. I like the history of the old photograph with the history of the old tool in me photograph. I was able to include the floor from my recent photograph throughout the entire photograph, so it looks like Wilbur is standing on the current day wood floor. I like playing with time and space in these photographs.
The quote from nephew Milton Wright in 1904 from a newspaper interview. “History was being made in their bicycle shop and in their home but the making was so obscured by the common place I did not recognize it until many years later.
To see more photographs from this series go to ClearyFineArtPhoto.com.