I'd hoped to capture the graphic chaos in the window. What I found was an even more tangled scene': Michael Krupka's best phone picture

"My father was a machinist and when I was a child we had a workshop at home where he could repair pretty much anything mechanical he encountered. As an artsy kid, I didn't inherit those skills, but I do have an aesthetic attraction to machines and mechanical things."

"I'd hoped to capture the graphic chaos against the backlit window. What I found was an even more tangled scene, with even more bikes in the foreground, which I used for the bottom third of the composition. The shot has something of a maze or jigsaw element, too, a kind of puzzle that might have interesting things to find within it."

"Krupka adds that including colour would have substantially lessened the impact of the geometry of the frames, wheels, seats. The blue-grey colour adds a layer of depth and energy, and has that touch of nostalgia, too. I'd wager that a great many of us rode bikes when we were young."

Michael Krupka, a photographer, entered Via Bicycle repair shop in Philadelphia after years of passing by, drawn to the aesthetic arrangement of frames and parts. Inspired by his father's machinist background and mechanical appreciation, Krupka sought to photograph the visual chaos of the shop. He composed a shot using the tangled bikes in the foreground and backlit window, creating a maze-like puzzle effect. Krupka deliberately chose black-and-white photography over color to emphasize the geometric qualities of frames, wheels, and seats. The blue-grey tones add depth, energy, and nostalgic resonance, evoking childhood bicycle experiences.

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