Anders Engberg embarks on a short illustrated series examining the changing world of mountain bike media, this time with Katie Lozancich.
Illustrations by Anders Engberg
“We are watching history being made”. The comment of a woman showing some iconic mountain bike photographs to her daughter is still a few hours from being typed on social media when Katie Lozancich is looking for compositions in the Utah desert.
It’s September 2019 and even though the heat of summer has surrendered to the cooler winds of the fall, the dust is still as dry and eager to cling to everything as always. Red Bull Formation has just embarked on its maiden voyage with riders charging down the hill, making their mark in the red dirt and in our collective minds all at once.
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It is a way to go to the top of that hill though, both geographically and as a career path. Looking far back on the way up the hill, one wonders if Katie can make out the cramped space of the career counselors office from her school days. The gray and white room allowing no more space than the exact practicality of a future imagined during a financial recession.
Growing up in a small town during the 2008 Great Recession didn’t exactly encourage me to pursue anything creative for a career.
Katie Lozancich explains:
This was quite a step back for the kid who had grown up with a stacked binder under her arm, filled with drawings and dreams of becoming a painter. The struggle between the free artist and the sensible middle ground has left many creatives on the safe side, eventually leaving them stranded in the hamster wheel. For Katie, this balancing-act made it´s presence known early but ended up being the catalyst that propelled her towards the lifestyle that she calls work today.
I stumbled into photography during my first year of college. I was an art major originally, but I listened to those “naysayers” and was like, “okay, I need to find something ‘practical’ to do.” I landed on Journalism because I loved telling stories, writing, and reading magazines. When I was little, I saved up for a National Geographic subscription, and I obsessed over those magazines, so I think that was an underlying inspiration too.
Those hours pouring over the images and articles in National Geographic certainly bore fruit as Katie left school and went on to write and take photographs for some of the most well known brands and publications in the mountain bike world. In the years when the kid with the iconic yellow framed magazine witnessed a shipwrecked global economy, the way we look at photography also changed rapidly. The advent of social media and the intense turnaround time for imagery that it spawned was something that bore new challenges for photographers. However, having to adapt can also have positive effects on the creative process, as Katie as found it.
There have been some shoots where I’ve wanted to tinker and craft the images, but as a whole, most turnaround times for projects are pretty quick. I think with any kind of art, you always want more time to play with something and make it better. But I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking, “it’s not good enough yet, I just need a little more time,” and then I never end up sharing the work. So sometimes, I appreciate the quick turnaround because it forces me to work from my instinct and not over think things.
On the hill in Utah that instinct and rapid creative process comes in handy as the women are dropping in left and right. Suddenly the shovels go quiet which means that someone is about to go for it. Katie turns around with her camera and has to find the line, the rider, the intended feature and work it into a composition in just seconds. Being a rider yourself is key in this process. Katie’s own passion for riding certainly shines through in her work, even though bikes came in to her life by chance.
Best $500 I’ve ever spent! Mountain biking came into my life somewhat accidentally. I discovered it in college because many of my skiing friends mountain biked in the summer. At the time, I couldn’t afford a season pass and the gas to go skiing, but I figured if I could get my hands on a bike, I could get my outdoor fix that way. So I found a 2009 Specialized Safire for $500 on this women’s mountain bike Facebook group, and that bike hooked me.
Even though Katie Lozancich is a prominent skier and is also an accomplished photographer in the winter realm, she has a soft spot for the two wheeled culture.
I think mountain bike photography is at an exciting point because more women and BIPOC folks are getting behind the camera and/or are part of the narrative. I think in the next decade we’re going to see the narrative expand, and it will start to feel a little more reflective of the world we live in—that’s my hope at least.
In a contemporary world dominated by images, one can’t help but wonder how the creatives that trade in images feel about the future. Are economic means going to be the owner of the narrative? Is it up for grabs for anyone, and where does the art of photography sit in that scenario? For Katie the role of the community is as clear as ever.
I think the way we experience photography may change. Branded and sponsored content is big a thing right now, and if we can leverage that to showcase meaningful stories, then there’s still a lot of value in photography. I want print to survive and thrive like hell, but that’s on all of us to show up and actually support the publications.
Back in Utah Katie’s shutter has just closed and she has captured one of the moments that is about to change womens freeride. This will be featured in Singletrack World Issue 145.
As Katie Lozancich turns her gaze from the path that led her up the hill, she makes out the horizon. Somewhere between the skies a woman and her daughter is about to re-live that moment and witness mountain bike history being made. Processed and shown through the eyes of the kid with the binder under her arm who was told not to go for it.
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