A group of women riding bicycles- most likely in a Parisian park- make their way as a crowd of spectators line what is most likely a race course. Photographer Carle de Mazibourg- already established as an early pioneer of fashion street photography- (see first plate in portfolio: Mlle. Cléo de Mérode) jumped on the so-called “Bicycle Craze” then popular at the time this photograph was taken: recording a scene of powerful female independence the so-called craze brought about.

Carle de Mazibourg: Paris amateur photographer: dates unknown

CARLE DE MAZIBOURG is one of the rare amateurs who practice portraiture; it is a difficult genre due to the pose and lighting of the model. He succeeds very well in backlighting, like Rembrandt. His three portraits of lady artists on mezzotype paper have a very artistic, distinguished stamp and the whole lives and breathes the joy of living. (1.)

Around 1895, Mazibourg was a member of the professionally oriented Societé Française de Photographie Paris. From 1894 to 1902, the Hamburg Amateur Photographers’ Association, which since 1895 has been known as the Society for the Promotion of Amateur Photography Hamburg, had him as a corresponding member. (2.)

1. Criticism: Deuxième Expositon D’Art Photographique: in: Association belge de photographie Bulletin, July, 1896: p. 513

2. Biography: Carle de Mazibourg: Kunstphotographie Um 1900: Die Sammlung Ernst Juhl; Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1989 pl. 652. p. 258