Visions of Cycling 20

"Visions of Cycling 2.0 is a personalised account of one photographer's life in cycling. Graham Watson spent forty years travelling around the world to photograph the sport he fell in love with after seeing the last days of the 1977 Tour de France. During those early travels, Graham discovered there was a whole lot more to the sport than the actual bike-racing - there was a world of adventures to enjoy as well. Travelling with and around the races brought new experiences each-and-every day. Memories of that lifestyle motivated Graham to write Visions of Cycling 2.0, with rarely-seen photography at the forefront of his thinking.

Amongst the book's 170 images can be found some of the author's favourite scenery landscapes, as well as off-beat humour from some of his behind-the-scenes memories. Historical action shots from the late-1970's remind the reader of the longevity of Graham's career before he retired in 2017. Across ten chapters, the author talks of his first picture sales, as well as remembering with some nostalgia the first colour front covers of Cycling magazine that featured his images in 1980. Ski-photography played a role in forming Graham's identity, for the author set out one winter believing he could make skiing become as successful for him as cycling had become. Yet cycling was always the pull that saw Graham make a successful living out of it for 40 years.

Visions of Cycling 2.0 is the last in a long line of books authored by Graham Watson, dating back to 1986 when he co-authored Kings of the Road with American writer, Robin Magowan.

Graham has since authored over twenty books related to cycling photography, Visions of Cycling was Graham's first solo experience in 1988, quickly followed by The Tour de France and its Heroes in1989 and then The Road to Hell (1992). Interspersed with other titles such as The Great Tours (1994), 20 Years of Cycling (2000), Landscapes of Cycling (2004), and 40 Years of Cycling Photography (2018), Graham had the privilege to exclusively collaborate with Stephen Roche's, My Road to Paris (1987), Miguel Indurain's Corazon de Ciclista (1993), Lance Armstrong's Images of a Champion (2003-2004) and Cadel Evans, The Long Road to Victory (2011).

Graham released his first-ever coffee-table book called Visions of Cycling, in 1988, a picture-led production that opened the eyes of many a cycling fan. Visions of Cycling 2.0 acts as a perfect book-end to Graham's photography career, a reflection of a life well spent photographing the world's greatest bike races. And it helps to reveal some of the unspoken back-story to Graham's career