Capturing Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer on the Set of ‘The Bikeriders’ (Exclusive Photos)

Austin Butler as seen in Insight Editions’ new book “Vandals: The Photography of The Bikeriders”, photographed by Kyle Bono Kaplan and Bryan Schutmaat

Kyle Bono Kaplan/Editions Insight

That of Jeff Nichols Bikers is a thrilling look at biker gangs, one of the most American subcultures. The film is set in the 1960s, when the wild freedom of riding in packs of bikes on the open roads of the United States with one’s club transforms into the intense violence and wild mayhem of a biker gang. Starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, the long-awaited film about an outlaw biker gang in Chicago is set to be released on June 21, after its previous release date of December 1 was pushed back.

The Focus Features film is inspired by the work of photographer Danny Lyon, who first gained notice for his photos in the early 1960s documenting the civil rights movement. He followed and then joined the Chicago chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. From 1963 to 1967, he took thousands of photos, engaging club members and, just as importantly, their wives and girlfriends in interviews that he recorded for posterity. His book Bikersreleased in 1968 to great success, is still a touchstone of modern photo reportage.

To mark the release of the new film, a new book of photographs has just been released Vandals: photography of bikers, published by Insight Editions, in partnership with New Regency. The 160-page hardback book is intended to serve as a visual companion to the film and was shot by Bryan Schutmaat and Kyle Bono Kaplan.

A photobook about a film based on a photobook is very meta. When asked to explain his thought process, Schutmaat responds The Hollywood Reporter regarding the photo project, “I just wanted to do justice to the subject. Bikers is such a seminal photo book that it would be intimidating to try to imitate Danny’s photos, so I was still myself as a photographer to a large extent. I spoke to Austin Butler briefly about this challenge. When he played Elvis, he didn’t do a direct impersonation, but he carried Elvis’ spirit with him and channeled it in unspeakable ways. I wasn’t trying to create a photographic equivalent of a Danny Lyon knockoff, but I was trying to channel Danny’s sense of curiosity, vitality and style at the time I was shooting. Kaplan adds, “Being part of a film that required not only photographing the story but also paying homage to Danny’s work felt like such a deep connection. Capturing the essence of Bikers became a tribute to Danny and the photographers of that era who fearlessly documented compelling stories.

Director Nichols had long been a fan of Lyon’s work. “Weirdly, before I met him, I started stalking him online and on his website Bleak Beauty,” says Nichols, who spent more than a decade putting the film together.

“I think a big part of the problem was that I didn’t know exactly how to make it happen,” he explains with a chuckle, of the years it took to make the film. “Honestly, it took me some big hurdles to figure out how I could tell this story. The first was how much to fictionalize this and that gave me a lot of freedom to take these incredible interviews in the book, move them around, piece them together and create amalgamated characters. I was thematically free, just to make a film that resembled what I felt when I looked at the photographs, and I wasn’t beholden to any specific story.

Nichols and Lyon met in 2014 and began discussing the project, with Lyon eventually giving Nichols access to the source material. “Jeff was able to go through all the prints and contact sheets I had made, to see what everyone looked like and how everyone dressed.” Lyon tells THR via email: “The most valuable source was the original ¼-inch audio tapes I made of all my “heroes,” who would later become the characters in the film. So Jeff and the actors could hear exactly how they spoke, which the actors then did an incredible job of recreating.

Watching the film, it’s strange to see how these actors – Hardy, Comer and Butler as well as Boyd Holbrook and Mike Faist – not only capture the voices and mannerisms of these real-life characters, but also embody their chaotic, time-worn lives. roads. From Comer’s 1960s Midwestern vocal lines to the period-correct leathers and patches that Hardy, Butler and the cast wear throughout the project, these precise little details make the film. Special mention also goes to the vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles seen throughout, organized by stunt coordinator Jeff Milburn. In his review of the film last fall, THR called it “a beautiful and violent love letter to strangers.”

As for how Lyon feels about now seeing the missing characters from his seminal book on screen, he says: “I’ve always romanticized them and admired a lot of them. So it makes sense that they live on in legend and on the big screen. But it was personal for me, Cal (played by Holdbrook in the movie) was really my best friend in the club, and I was crazy about Kathy (Comer). That’s why they spoke to me the way they did. If you want someone to care about you, you have to care about them first. When asked if it was a surprise to also see himself in the film, Lyon replied: “Of course, why not? I was as crazy as many of them and loved riding my Triumph on the streets of Chicago.

But it was a visit to the set that allowed the now 82-year-old photographer to feel that outlaw biker spirit again. “It was seeing my funky old Triumph parked on the set and first sitting on it, then starting it up with a great roar and wanting to drive off into the sunset,” Lyon says. “Everyone on set looked at me in horror.”