Reeled in

How a reel of film from the early 20th century set Ned on a trail of discovery

- Ned Boulting

Take any moment in any race. Take a snapshot at random; perhaps of a group splintering on a wet descent in the Vosges, a lone attacker passing through a Flemish village and angling their bike as they sweep past a couple of spectators. Or take the moment a rider glances to their left to admire the view of a chateau as they race by. Freeze the frame and then dive into it, harvesting every pixel for meaning, extracting all you can about the human, social, historical and political context in which that an isolated moment is sited. Go beyond the obvious, ever deeper, and ever wider, until from that singular kernel, you have created a world; half imagined, half real, but complete.

For the best part of a year, during the worst of the limitations that the Covid pandemic placed on our ability to meet and move, this is what I did. I don't believe in providence, but I do believe in salvation; and this was mine. Here's how it happened.