Danny Lyon

The inspiration behind the new film with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, and Mike Faist

First published in 1968, and now back in print for the first time in ten years, The Bikeriders explores firsthand the stories and personalities of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. This journal-size volume features original black-and-white photographs and transcribed interviews by Lyon, made from 1963 to 1967, when he was a member of the Outlaws gang. Authentic, personal and uncompromising, Lyon's depiction of individuals on the outskirts of society offers a gritty yet humane perspective that subverts more commercialized treatments of Americana. Akin to the documentary style of 1960s-era New Journalism made famous by writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe, Lyon's photography is saturation reporting at its finest. The Bikeriders is a touchstone publication of 1960s counterculture, crucially defining the vision of the outlaw biker as found in Easy Rider and countless other movies and photobooks.

“Like an Old Testament prophet, the photographer Danny Lyon has agitated for his fellow man to pursue justice and freedom. This was not always a popular message, nor a lucrative one, but that wasn't how he saw his role. -The New York Times Armed with a Triumph, a Nikon, and a unique dual perspective as both participant and observer, Lyon was able to access and portray a disarmingly intimate, familiar, and diverse subculture. - LA Weekly A seminal work in the modern photography canon - Time Whether shooting civil-rights protesters, motorcycle gang members or Texas inmates, the photographer empathized with his subjects--sometimes getting so close, he took up their cause. - The Wall Street Journal Mr. Lyon...did more than anyone outside Hollywood to establish the image of the outlaw biker. - The New York Times Wheels blog”

Like an Old Testament prophet, the photographer Danny Lyon has agitated for his fellow man to pursue justice and freedom. This was not always a popular message, nor a lucrative one, but that wasn’t how he saw his role. –The New York Times
Armed with a Triumph, a Nikon, and a unique dual perspective as both participant and observer, Lyon was able to access and portray a disarmingly intimate, familiar, and diverse subculture. –LA Weekly
A seminal work in the modern photography canon –Time
Whether shooting civil-rights protesters, motorcycle gang members or Texas inmates, the photographer empathized with his subjects—sometimes getting so close, he took up their cause. –The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Lyon…did more than anyone outside Hollywood to establish the image of the outlaw biker. –The New York Times Wheels blog

Danny Lyon is highly regarded as one of the most influential documentary photographers of the last five decades. His many books include The Movement (1964), The Destruction of Lower Manhattan (1969), Conversations with the Dead (1971), Knave of Hearts (1999), Like a Thief’s Dream (2007), and Deep Sea Diver (2011). Widely exhibited and collected, Lyon has been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships twice and National Endowment for the Arts grants ten times.

First published in 1968, and now back in print for the first time in ten years, The Bikeriders explores firsthand the stories and personalities of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club. This journal-size volume features original black-and-white photographs and transcribed interviews by Lyon, made from 1963 to 1967, when he was a member of the Outlaws gang. Authentic, personal and uncompromising, Lyon's depiction of individuals on the outskirts of society offers a gritty yet humane perspective that subverts more commercialized treatments of Americana. Akin to the documentary style of 1960s-era New Journalism made famous by writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe, Lyon's photography is saturation reporting at its finest. The Bikeriders is a touchstone publication of 1960s counterculture, crucially defining the vision of the outlaw biker as found in Easy Rider and countless other movies and photobooks.

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