A Man's Bicycle

A bicycle left standing at Merville with a 1940 Texas licence plate wired to the carrier and a poppy pushed in beside it.

Somebody rode it here and leaned it up while they walked round the casemates. It is not a monument. Nobody has put an interpretation board next to it. It is one man's bicycle, done up with more care than several of the official memorials on this coast, and left where you would trip over it.

That is usually where the good stuff is.

The Merville Battery, Merville-Franceville-Plage, Normandy. August 2019. Canon 6D Mark II, 16–35mm.

Printed at 30 × 47,1 cm through WhiteWall in Berlin. Choose Ilford or Baryta paper, as a plain print or framed — what the finishes actually mean.