MICHAEL LICHTER ITW HARLEY DAVIDSON PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU GET NEAR THE WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY?
When I was 5 years old, an uncle brought me into his darkroom to make a print and I loved doing this. I thought it was absolute magic! It seems after that, I always had a brownie or Kodak “Instamatic” (I had the original “Instamatic 100” when it first came out!) to take photos with, and then when I was 13, my father loaned me a Pentagon 35mm camera that he brought back from Europe after serving in WW2. I took this to an art summer camp I was enrolled in photographing everything and working in their darkroom. Then when I returned home, I cobbled together a darkroom with used pieces my father found for me in the basement of our house where I shared space with the washing machine.
WHEN DID YOU UNDERSTAND THAT BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER WAS YOUR JOB?
In university, I studied art with a focus on photography, so I went quite a few years where I believed I would never go into commercial photography to always keep photography a pure interest on the side, but eventually I realized I enjoyed doing it so much, and could also do so much of what I wanted to do that by the time I was 23 years old, I said this is “it!”
WHAT BROUGHT YOU INTO THE MOTORCYCLE WORLD?
I had the opportunity as a kid to ride some of my friends mini bikes or Honda Trail bikes and I absolutely loved the film “Easy Rider” when it was first released (my good friends mother brought us in because we weren’t allowed in on our own due to the film’s rating!) but motorcycling wasn’t something my family supported, so it really wasn’t until I was out of the family house that I got my own bike. While I didn’t realize this until years later, I ended up buying a Honda 450 just months after reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” and shortly after that, a friend let me ride his 1947 Knucklehead Chopper with a long springer front end, and I knew that was it. At 22, I found a used Harley-Davidson Shovelhead and road it back from San Francisco to Colorado photographing the bike and what I saw all along the way.
WHAT'S YOUR BIKE AND HOW MANY KILOMETERS HAVE YOU DONE WITH IT?
I still have my 1971 HD Shovelhead, but there’s no speedo / odometer on it. It has been on several trips around the country to California, up to Canada and back to New York, and many trips to Sturgis but these days, having no suspension or electric start, it is my fun bike for the nearby mountains and around town. It brings a huge smile to my face every time I get on it. My main bike is my 1995 HD Road King. As I fly to shoots all over the country and around the world, and often end up sitting backwards on the backs of other riders bikes (more than 20,000 backwards miles like this!), my Road King only has about 65,000 miles on it.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHER FOR BIKE WORLD, BEING ON THE TWO HEELS FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS?
I don’t think too much about where I fit in the motorcycle world as to my 35+ years shooting motorcycles and the biker culture because I am still so involved with making photographs. This is still what I love to do. As far as I’m concerned, it is really for other people to judge whether my work is meaningful in some way - I’ll just keep creating it.
WHAT KEPT YOU PASSIONATE FOR THE MOTORCYCLE WORLD FOR ALL THESE YEARS?
My love of photography and love of motorcycles is what keeps me passionate. Also, the fact that life is always changing keeps my interest - wanting to go out and see new things, meet new people, see new styles… It also helps keep me young.
WHAT'S YOU TYPICAL PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT?
I shoot almost exclusively with 35-mm style DLSR’s. While I have always used larger studio gear from 4” x 5” view cameras to 6 x 6 - 6 x 8 cm style cameras, and more recently 60 megapixel medium format digital cameras, it is my 35mm cameras that work best for my style of photography. I started with Nikon 54 years ago, so these are the cameras I still use, although where I once bought a body thinking it would last 20 years, with digital, you find yourself upgrading now every couple of years!
WHICH ONE IS YOUR SHOOT THAT YOU PREFER AND WHY?
I don’t have any single shoot that I can say I prefer, but I can say my favorite types of shoots are when I am out photographing people focused on doing exactly what they love to do the most, and this tends to be with younger people that can’t get enough of their bikes! They want to customize them, ride them, race them, get together with like minded people and talk about them and camp out next to them. They aren’t performing for the camera, and hopefully they become oblivious to it, so I can just capture these moments.
SAID THAT WE DO A DENIM FOCUSED MAGAZINE AND A DENIM EVENT, HOW MUCH THE DENIM WORLD INFLUENCES THE MOTORCYCLE ONE?
Denim and motorcycles have always gone hand and hand. It is what is best suited for motorcycling and what bikers wear.
WHO ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE THAT YOU SHOOT DURING YOUR CAREER?
I have shot Pete Townsend of the Who, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, the Doobie Brothers band, Malcolm Forbes from the world of finance, Willie G Davidson of Harley-Davidson, almost all of the most known custom bike builders and many more television, sports, film and music stars, but I don’t seek out the stars. I am much more interested in riders with amazing stories and fascinating characters. For me, they help make motorcycling what it is.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT A STORY THAT YOU'LL REMIND FOREVER HAPPENED DURING THESE YEARS?
Every photo I take is a story so I have thousands and thousands to tell. I have written many of these down, like in my book simply titled “Sturgis” (the first of my 11-books) where I write something about each of the photos, or when I am at an exhibition and I walk around with people that are interested, I will start telling these stories as well. In a way, the collection of all my photos is just the story of my life!
FINALLY TAKING PICTURE FOR ALL THIS YEARS MEANS TO TAKE A PORTRAIT OF AN ENTIRE ERA… WHAT'S LEFT INSIDE YOU AFTER ALL THIS TIME (apart from the pictures)?
I want to keep photographing to see what is out there in the world. Even when I go back to the same place or same event, I see it differently each time, and each time I have a new opportunity to see how the world before me translates into two dimensions. How will what is before me look as a photograph? And every time I go out, with every click of the shutter, I am learning. Isn’t this what keeps life interesting.
