23: Bike Riding Couple

Bike Riding Couple
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West 47th St. @ Ninth Ave., Manhattan, NYC, NY.
Full spectrum color, high definition + HDR photo merger…

✍ The two-story wall mural once stood out in vivid yellow and blue... It is signed by French artist, cartoonist and children's book illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé. He is also known for both cartoons and cover art in The New Yorker and other {primarily French} magazines. The piece is very difficult to photograph due to peeling yellow paint so I took two versions for good measure...

✍ I came across an old photo of this piece from ca. 1980 showing that there was more to the piece.... There was a little girl on a bicycle following the couple. That can be seen at the bottom of the page here for anyone interested.

☚ Higher resolution, larger version

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Appreciate your comments. Thank you =)

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4 comments so far...

Fizgig September 10, 2018, 05:03 PM

Companion Photo (clickable):

Sonja September 12, 2018, 01:08 PM

I still think the colour version is preferable although the contrast fades. But actually as it is not just some grafitty tag gracously suffered but a comissioned artwork by an internationally known illustrator, some restautation might be advisable before it is to late....

Fizgig September 12, 2018, 07:05 PM

I don't see restoration happening here.... Sémpe is famous, but also very, very prolific so there really isn't much interest in preserving this type of work by him. True collectors are most interested in his New Yorker and French magazine pieces. This street art piece is in a non-tourist interest area and just doesn't get enough exposure to justify the enormous cost to restore it.

As for the two versions, of course the color one is preferable since that's how the artist intended the piece to look. I took the other version to better show the details which are nowhere near as visible in a color photo at this point in the piece's decay. As is, it took quite a bit of processing to bring out the color version's details due to the extensive decay of the piece. Ideally, a merger of the infrared & HDR would provide the best image, but it would also mean compromising on the colors.... Hence the two versions.

Thanks for your interest.