Have you wanted small part of Motorcycle history? Legendary Photographer Danny Lyon is selling signed prints of Route 12, Wisconsin at MAGNUM PHOTOS. This photo was featured on the cover of the BIKERIDERS. Published in 1967, This was one of the first looks at motorcycling as a culture. It remains one of the most respected and reflected upon books examining the subject of personal freedom and societal rebellion.
Route 12, Wisconsin, 1963
Skip Richheimer and I, both bikeriders, both photographers, were heading out of town to the scrambles at Elkhorn Wisconsin, Skip driving a VW Beetle. Five bikeriders approached us from behind, I’m sure heading to the races at Elkhorn as they passed around the car, like a swarm of bees. The bikers reached an overpass, lifting them up off the ground as they rose up before us. One of the bikers leaning to the side to speed past another. The great body language of motorcycles. That spring I showed the pictures I made at Elkhorn to Hugh Edwards, then curator at the Art Institute of Chicago. On May 8, 1963, he sent me a letter. “How I wish I had some influence in the world so that there might be a book of them, with a glorifying text by someone like William Burroughs, James Jones or John Dos Passos, the reproductions done by a great firm like Conzett and Huber in Zurich or Pizzi in Milan.” Three of the greatest living writers and the two greatest reproduction houses in the world. I was twenty-one. The letter changed my life forever.
Danny Lyon
Find out more about Danny Lyon at Bleak Beauty Purchase a print at MAGNUM PHOTOS
The Square Print Sale
Turning Points, the April 2020 Magnum Square Print Sale in collaboration with The Everyday Projects, brings together a selection of over 120 images by international photographers and visual artists. The participating photographers have scoured personal archives in search of images that represent changes in the course of history, society, a life, or an artistic practice.
When this theme was settled upon, few involved foresaw the changes that would develop across the globe over coming weeks. With the world facing unprecedented challenges in the face of a sprawling pandemic, reflections around personal fulcrums, social tipping-points, and geo-political crossroads seem eerily apt. In response, Magnum photographers will be donating 50% of their proceeds from the sale to Médecins Sans Frontières’s COVID-19 emergency response. We are thrilled to announce that a private charitable donor will match Magnum photographers’ donations, up to $500,000.