“I was on a motorcycle the entire seven days racing out in front of the pack to find a spot I wanted to shoot from,” says Bo of the event that takes riders a grueling 645 miles from Long Beach to Sacramento. “After they would pass by, I’d jump back on the bike and race back to join them and then move ahead once again.”
With the intention to deliver the images to AP/Wire for immediate worldwide distribution, Bo knew he needed to work both fast and efficiently. “I had my assistant in the back seat of a police car,” he shares. “We would pull up next to him and hand off the cards from my camera while still moving. He would edit on the fly while the officer drove him and I would continue on shooting.
Golden State partnered with Bo to share a selection of this amazing weeklong photo essay. Along California roadways, highways and coastlines he documents the anticipation, endurance, struggle and exhilaration of seven stages in competitive racing.
A couple of bikers passing through the Golden Gate. Shot with a 400 mm lens, this image pulls in the riders and makes them appear much closer to the bridge than they are.
[Top left] Self-explanatory, but I was digging the banana suit. [Bottom left] The fans play a huge roll and appear in the middle of nowhere. They will sleep along the roadside and do whatever they can to get a glimpse as the bikers race past. Here some fans run uphill in custom as long as their legs will carry them. [Right] Patrick is an avid bike rider. I had shot him before racing in the Baja 1000. Didn’t get a chance to stop and say ‘hi’ on this drive-by shot. Just saw him out there supporting the bikers for a cause.
This was up near Big Bear Mountain. I jumped off my bike and ran inside the tunnel. I blew out the light at the end to silhouette the riders going into the darkness.
S Turns: A long shot with a 500mm lens. I used the street and the fence to line up the composition of the rolling hills and the bikers coming down.
