Bike Lanes In Copenhagen: A photo essay

Copenhagen is often is ranked as one of the top 10 healthiest cities in the world... It also happens to get ranked as one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world time after time. Coincidence? Some 300 kilometers of bike paths in the city currently with plans to continue with paths approaching some 500 kilometers...

 I spent an hour out - during a snowstorm, a few nights ago in the City capturing a few images of cyclists that seemed less than deterred by challenges of cold, snow, darkness, traffic...

If only some of our US cities could see the wisdom in this and expedite city planning moving forward to realize this too. Minneapolis seems to be leading the way...

The fossil fuel industry is compounding challenges with climate and climate refugees, health... Why not a push to provide the infrastructure to make the needed shift in the urban and suburban landscapes? Cars are so yesterday...

Christiania Bikes are iconic - designed and built here, often loaded with family members...

A bike lane some 2 meters wide...

Electric bikes for rent in front of the Osterport Train Station...

Women's March: A photo essay

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." A. Nin

Sitting in this Copenhagen apartment is no place to hide - just steps away from the US Embassy, surrounded by very cosmopolitan and well-educated globally politically savvy Danes... 

I often feel disoriented here... not quite lost perhaps - but set in motion to a yet to be realized location and the anchor long since lifted from solid earth... My passport has fallen into the dirty laundry and put through the spin cycle, now barely recognizable. A blessing or a curse? When can I return? And to what?

This past month I have swum daily with thumb and fingers through a miasma of purported facts, alternate facts, powerful images filled with emotion, well-edited video clips - and an un-stilled echoing of competing and familiar voices the international media constantly thrusts upon us. Alt Right, Left, Centrist, Nationalistic... An overdue education in geo political "science" and innate biological animal instinct... Am I a silent witness to a desperate splashing across this contemporary world stage before going under?

In the US politicians and celebrities, non profit groups continue to collide with incredible energy. Endless social media blitzes, email blasts in this nexus and crucible of ideas and intent. Using fear, using money, using influence, using electrons and our Pavlovian reflex, finding and engaging the consumer in us all. 

So much external stimuli I can imagine it a blade in a descending guillotine. So much impact of "news" and imagery that our heads, our brains, leave the corporeal... Within a few seconds from severance we grasp for comprehension. Eyes blinking as the brain struggles to comprehend and associate this separation. Do we, are we becoming sensitized, numb? Are we losing our collective discernment for what is light and what may be darkness through exposure and forced acceptance to the unacceptable? 

I found a bit of grounding on the 21st of this month. I found and heard a human voice again. Witness to smiles, witness to the venting and peaceful expression of what we stand to lose through silence, through our de-sensitivity to what is human and worth honoring and maintaining. 

Have we arrived at the edge... If so, it is an exciting place to be, a place to feel incredibly alive... A place to hope, to have vision, to act.  A place to awaken. To listen, discern, and act conscionably. As we should be. 

Saturday was a very good start. Perhaps because women were behind it? It felt very peaceful, non-threatening, but forceful from where I stood and from where I marched with my camera... And for a moment I felt the specter of anxiety slipping away... Now we must keep this birthed spark, nurture it, feed it... 

"As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevail." A. Einstein

words and images ©Bennett Barthelemy January 2017

A Face in the Crowd: Photo Essay

I wandered through crowds at the Glyptoteket Tuesday... Not surprising we are selfie obsessed today. It is in our evolution, our genes. Cast back a few millennia into art and you can fish out a crazy array of Egyptian, Greek and Roman busts... And some more recent ones as well from the last couple centuries... Idol/ideal, legacy and posterity. 

We have changed quickly in terms of immediacy - and I suspect the legacy part will change too. Curious what will happen with all these photo portraits, silver halide and electrons and the turnover of technology from CD-rom to portable hard drives, clouds - from magazine to e-zine, slide to digital... Losing touch with the tangible, embracing the ephemeral. Impermanence the only permanence. Perhaps it's a good thing...

all images ©Bennett Barthelemy January 2017

Evasive Embrace: a winter photo essay

Winter has a different palette...
Spectrum, hue, shade, feeling.

The slow bleed, the limp, this oblique softness...
My pace subdued, heartbeat slowed.

The crunch, this slip through shadows.
Hot vapor breath collide with opaque ice, 

Crystalline whispers from the past
Biting down, this painfully silent future.

This evasive embrace. Splinted season,
Blurs into focus...


"When the sun turns traitor cold and shivering trees are standing in a naked row..." JM

words and images ©Bennett Barthelemy January 2017

Crack Climbing Workshop in Copenhagen!!!

Hey all -

I will be teaching crack climbing workshop (intro to misery) in Copenhagen in March. If you will be local please come join. It will be here Blocs and Walls.

There where be a slideshow presentation of my images from lots of magical trad venues from around the globe - and free band-aids for all who finish the course.

Copenhagen: Challenges and Sublimities

It is difficult for me to apply highly positive superlatives to any "great" city - I have lived in and next to a few lauded as amazing and was not so consistently moved. And I have visited many on several continents (Here is a partial list... Portland Oregon, Los Angeles, Denver, Dakar, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Mexico City, Athens, Paris)... But in the case of Copenhagen, I am finding it slightly easier to see the positive. There are many things to charm one newly anchored here, but it does require a bit of searching and perseverance. I will take a moment verbally and visually to reflect on the challenges and the positives as I experience them. And I should mention my amazing wife that has been my guide for much of these realizations - She continues to illuminate this new geography and eased immeasurably the needed fluency in crossing the many borders that naturally exist when one lands in a New/Old world.

Challenges/Positives:

1. Broken Glass and Bike Lanes- The fallout from football fans at the local stadium and weekend debaucheries in general is keg cups of half drunk beer and broken glass ornamenting the streets. What really sucks is the glass in bicycle lanes which have accounted for three flats in one month. If Copenhagen were a liver and Sunday morning from the bike lane was your opportunity to assess its health, you might conclude that it was quite jaundiced. The good news: Other than uber-fit Danes overtaking by bicycle in the 6 foot wide lanes (this is nearly all of the hundreds I encounter during a commute session- young, old, male, female, a mother on a Christiania bike with her 4 year old son and the father nestled into the covered carrier - I blame it on my mountain bike geared for a landscape that actually has an incline) I have NEVER worried much about cars because bicycles are considered royalty here and treated with great respect by the internal combustion hangers-on, as it should be.

2. Information- The challenge often comes at a doctors office, the pharmacy, the climbing gym etc. I am often spoken to in Danish. When I cannot respond the burden is on me to be extremely clear, calm and direct or I leave with very spotty information. I could blame it on the reserved nature of Danes. The good news: As a foreigner and immigrant I am extremely lucky that I speak English as 99.9% of the population in CPH speaks my native language better than I do. Danish is ridiculously difficult in pronunciation and spelling and it seems even Danes complain about it and prefer speaking English. I am sure there written grammar is better than mine to. Precision seems to be appreciated in this society in general. So now I am learning to be dialed in with my questions and the result is dialed in.

3. Wilderness VS urbanization- For centuries the landscape here has been used and manicured so finding raw earth, mountains, forests doesn't really happen. The good news: A bit of exploration has yielded that there are quite a few free things to engage in that allow for flights of fancy into a colorful and rich heritage of architecture, art, royalty. Many museums have free days like the Glyptotek on Tuesday, the Kastellet and the Royal Artillery Museum every day, many churches and cemeteries, centuries old towers. History is alive and well and as accessible as it is enriching.

4. Health and wellness- Coming from Boulder Colorado I was convinced I had already found the healthiest city in the world. It still may be true in terms of altitude training and wilderness opportunities. There is no easy access to mountains or trails like there are with the Rockies out the back door. This was a bit crippling at first. The good news: CPH however gets ranked as the world's healthiest city - and the friendliest city for bikes... Connection here? Eating locally is not super expensive. Lots of great root vegetables and seeds are cheap and quite a bit of eko (organic) products. Blocs-and Walls has five leadable cracks with fingers to bigger than fist and they might be fiberglass but they are my new five best friends. Did I mention how clean this city is? Except for the broken glass on the weekend there are lots of eco-groovy windmills and it is very well-kept in terms of trash with recycling, garbage service, attention to neatness of streets, buildings. The Lakes are five reservoirs with swans, mallards, ringed with cafes and historic buildings and scores of runners at all hours of the day and night in circumambulation. Security is mandatory to maintain a healthy sense of exercise freedom and I have always felt safe here, running, riding or walking the streets on photo tours at all hours. I don't miss my car at all.

Corinne feeling safe in the arms of Mother Denmark

Museums in Copenhagen rarely seem to fear one getting up close and more personal with history, a big departure from museum exploration in the US

Feeling connected to a living history in the King's Garden, populated with people from ages past 

Sky Fishing

New Years Eve 2015 ©Bennett Barthelemy


I am fishing, casting my line into this subdued sky. What will my hook find today...

These latent moments sky fishing are a curious comfort that does bring much needed warmth. Home seems both place and concept - sometimes one, sometimes the other, but rarely in harmony.
-Excerpt from a soon to be published article

Bicycles and Climate: A Photo Essay

Copenhagen has a reputation of being perhaps the most bicycle friendly city in the world.

As we roll forward into a super-heated world, as COP21 looms ahead and the chance at an international agreement to better realize divesting ourselves globally of the fossil fuels, I quite enjoy surrounding myself with bicycles and not driving a car anymore.

Rain, nightfall, rush hour, being dressed up or even wearing a dress... Rarely seems to slow the steady flow of bicycles.

Bicycles are a ubiquitous part of society here with an infrastructure that promotes bicycle safety and their use with wide dedicated lanes. When going to an event it will list where the nearest car parking and bicycle parking is located.

I am told that to buy a car in Denmark you must be prepared to roughly pay 200 percent tax on it.

At a meeting in Copehangen a few days ago hosted by the French Embassy in Copenhagen, the European Parliament's Office, Nyt Europa to help educate French Citizens living in Denmark on the issues that will be raised at the climate talks at COP21 it was stressed that the actions will largely come from the bottom upward. "You cannot come to the COP without first changing in your own home." Martin Lidegaard - Former Minister of Climate, Energy and Building for Denmark

"66 percent of citizens globally view that adapting policy for climate change will improve their quality of life." Bjørn Bedsted - Head of Danish Board of Technology International

"No climate models look good. Action is urgent - If we decide not to do anything for 25 years it will be too late. It is technologically feasible and economically viable." Dr. Jean Jouzel - IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

I am excited to have the opportunity to go to the climate talks in Paris next month... 

All images ©Bennett Barthelemy 2015