“In my America, people were all different, they were handsome, and everything around them was beautiful, and most of all, they were free.”
—Danny Lyon
Having started riding motorcycles around the University of Chicago in 1963, photographer Danny Lyon joined the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club to further immerse himself within the counterculture. Chronicling the Club from 1963 to 1967, The Bikeriders magnifies and elevates these outcasts of American society, capturing their cool nonchalance and the unabashed freedom of their lifestyle. The work distills Lyon’s photographic practice of saturation reporting – personally embedding himself within his subject and becoming an insider, all while remaining ever the observer. The material from the series culminated in Lyon’s first book, The Bikeriders (1968), now considered one of the defining photobooks of the 1960s. The series taps into America’s fascination with biker culture and is aligned with Hunter S. Thompson’s 1969 book Hell’s Angels and such classic films as The Wild Ones and Easy Rider. It serves as the inspiration for the forthcoming film The Bikeriders to be released in June 2024.
