Danny Lyon's 1960s biker photography

Wp-Content Authors Ben-Watts The-Bikeriders01

In the mid-1960s, photographer Danny Lyon spent several years riding with the Chicago Outlaws and documenting their scene on film. The resultant book, The Bikeriders (1968), is recognized as the first photo book about the biker subculture. It's currently available from Chronicle Books. Smithsonian magazine looks back on that moment in Lyon's career, and tells the story of the portrait above of club members Sparky and CowBoy. From Smithsonian:

Cowboy and Sparky, two pals on bikes. They've just been to a motorcycle race in Schererville, Indiana, and their girlfriends will soon get off work from the Dairy Queen. It is November 1965, and CowBoy - Irvin P. Dunsdon, who uses the capital B to this day - is 23 years old. He feels he's on top of the world.

He and Sparky — Charles Ritter - met in the Army and bonded instantly. When CowBoy got out of the service in 1964, he moved not to Utah, where he came from, but to Gary, Indiana—Sparky's hometown—so he could be there when Sparky got back from Vietnam a year later.

Now, in '65, they stick up for each other. They take no grief from anyone. They share the joy of biking on the open road. They belong to the Gary Rogues, a local motorcycle club.

Link to Smithsonian, Link to buy The Bikeriders book

Discussion

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#1 posted by Nora Rocket

, March 7, 2008 10:11 AM

Okay, blazing hot. Thanks, BB, for facilitating another fine round of "open road hot boy fantasy in my cubicle: how I get through the last part of the work week."

#2 posted by BrianMc , March 7, 2008 12:08 PM

This is an amazing book, and it reminds me a lot of Bruce Davidson's "Brooklyn Gang" series from 1959. Definitely check out the body of work if you don't know it. The book is hard to come by and rather pricey when you do, but the photography is simply brilliant.

http://www.edelmangallery.com/davidsonshow1.htm

#3 posted by eyeruh , March 7, 2008 1:42 PM

Danny Lyon is equally well-known for his work photographing the civil rights movement as part of the SNCC. His book "Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement" is well worth checking out.

#4 posted by Takuan , March 7, 2008 1:51 PM

I remember these from a magazine.... Life?

#5 posted by jonjonz , March 8, 2008 6:41 AM

Ah the last gasp of the ducktail and Bryllcream...

#6 posted by koreylittlewater , March 9, 2008 6:31 PM

The band Lucero wrote a great song called "Bikeriders" that's based on one of the stories from the book.