Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders offers a look into motorcycle gangs, one of the most American of subcultures.

The film takes place in the 1960s when the freedom of riding in packs of bikes along the open roads of the America with one’s club transformed into the heavy violence and wild mayhem of a biker gang.

Starring Oscar nominees Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, and Jodie Comer the long-awaited movie about an outlaw motorcycle gang in Chicago opens June 21, after previous release date of December 1 was pushed.

Photographer Danny Lyon

The film is inspired by the work of photographer Danny Lyon, who first became noticed 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 their wives and girlfriends in interviews, which he recorded for posterity.

His book The Bikeriders, released in 1968 to much acclaim, is still a touchstone in modern photo reportage.

Vandals: The Photography of The Bikeriders

The 160-page hardback book is a visual companion to the film and was shot by Bryan Schutmaat and Kyle Bono Kaplan.

A photobook about a movie based on a photobook?

When asked to explain his thought process, Schutmaat said: “I just wanted to do the subject matter justice. The Bikeriders is such a seminal photobook that it would be daunting to try to straight up emulate Danny’s pictures, so I was still myself as a photographer to a large degree.

I spoke briefly to Austin Butler about this challenge. When he played Elvis, he wasn’t doing a direct impersonation, but he carried the spirit of Elvis with him and kind of channeled him in untold ways.

I didn’t try to do a photographic equivalent of a  Danny Lyon impersonation, but I did attempt to channel Danny’s sense of curiosity, vitality and style in the days when I was shooting.” Adds Kaplan, “Being part of a film that not only required photographing the narrative but also paying homage to Danny’s work felt like such a profound connection.

Capturing the essence of Bikeriders became tribute to Danny and the photographers of that era who documented captivating stories.”

Director Jeff Nichols

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

Nichols and Lyon met in 2014 to discuss the project–Lyon eventually gave Nichols access to the source material. “Jeff was able to look through all the prints and contact sheets I had made, so he could see how everyone looked and how everyone dressed.”

Lyon say, “The most valuable source was the original ¼-inch audio tapes I had made with all my ‘heroes,’ who would then become the characters in the film. So Jeff and the cast could hear exactly how they spoke, which the actors then did such an amazing job to recreate.”

It iss uncanny how these actors — Hardy, Comer and Butler as well as Boyd Holbrook and Mike Faist — nail the voices and mannerisms of these real-life characters but also embody their road-worn, shambolic lives.

From Comer’s 1960s Midwestern vocal phrasings to the period leathers and patches that Hardy, Butler and the cast wear throughout the project, these small, accurate details make the film. A special mention also goes out to the period-correct Harley-Davidson motorcycles seen throughout, curated by stunt coordinator Jeff Milburn.

How Lyon feels to see the long-gone characters from his seminal book now onscreen?

“I always romanticized them and looked up to many of them. So it makes sense that they should live on in legend and on the silver screen. But it was personal for me, Cal [played by Holdbrook] really was my best friend in the club, and I was crazy about Kathy [Comer]. That is why they talked to me the way they did. If you want someone to care about you, you have to care about them first.”

I Was as Crazy as Many of Them

Asked if it was a surprise seeing himself in the film, Lyon notes, “Sure, why not? I was as crazy as many of them and loved riding my Triumph through the streets of Chicago.”

A visit to the set made the photographer, now 82, feel that outlaw biker spirit again.

“It was seeing my old funky Triumph parked on the set and first sitting on it and then kickstarting it with a tremendous roar and wanting to ride off into the sunset,” says Lyon. “Everyone on the set looked at me in horror.”