One man, one bike, one camera.
In his last year of a physics and computer science degree, Benjamin Ockert is a man of spreadsheets and numbers. With the aid of a high-resolution, 54- inch square map from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) depicting bicycle trails, Ben is calculating what would be needed for a month-long photographic bicycle tour beginning on his doorstep in Fargo and traversing the surrounding communities like Duluth, St. Paul, Bemidji, Rochester, Park Rapids, St. Cloud, Sauk Center, and Detroit Lakes.
“It’s pretty well mapped out,” Ben said of his trip scheduled for June of 2024. “I’ve planned it out very carefully… but I know that at a certain point I am going to have to let go of that.”
While it can be plotted in numbers—55 miles per day, 600-plus miles of trail, 40 rolls of film—the trip itself is an expression of new love. Love for art, cycling, and love of his local community.
“I worked the night shift for six years while pursuing my degree and that really took most of my time,” Ben said. “That changed this spring and I was looking for something fun, something new I could learn, and something where I could use my hands.”
His search led Ben to two very different part-time jobs while finishing the last of his degree: With NDSU’s Memorial Union Gallery and The Great Northern Bicycle Company located in Fargo.
“Art is one of those things that I do to get away from numbers and equations and things like that,” said Ben, who has only been doing photography for about three years. One of the main goals of his bicycle tour is to photograph many of the breathtaking locations along his route, to engage with the local communities, and to capture their stories and offerings through the images he will take on the camera he restored himself.
“It’s a Bronica EC camera from the 70s so it’s not digital. I did a lot of restoration to it. It’s very basic, there’s no metering. It’s very manual and very heavy. It will be half the weight of what I am carrying on the trip,” said Ben. “I really like the mechanical aspect of these cameras and there is a beautiful aspect of capturing an image right now, and knowing I probably won’t see it for a month. You have to have faith that you did what you could to make it as beautiful as you could.”
Ben has been coordinating with Fargo Photoworks to acquire film for his 50-year-old camera. Each roll of film only sports 12 photos each, which works out to about one dollar per image.
At The Great Northern Bicycle Company, Ben’s interest in cycling changed from a functional means of transportation to a fun pastime.
