To mark the 30th anniversary of the Mois de la Photo, Philippe Vermès ‘ black & white “WANTED BIKERS” (Portraits of American Bikers and their Bikes) were exhibited at Galerie W in Paris. An initial selection of images was presented at the first Chic Art Fair in October 2010, as a particularly promising preview.
Indien biker
These portraits were taken at the end of the 80s, during two biker gatherings in the USA in August: one in Loudon, New Hampshire and the other in Sturgis, South Dakota, not far from the famous Mount Rushmore. These gatherings are huge show fairs where bikers unabashedly assume esoteric roles, sometimes referring to the founding myths of the conquest of the West: the frontier, travel, wandering, Indians.
Philippe Vermès, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris, works with large-format cameras and has a predilection for black-and-white portraiture. In 1992, he received the Kodak Gold Award for his portrait work. He has exhibited from Paris to Hamburg, then New York, and some of his portraits are in the permanent collections of museums worldwide.
Les belles de Loudon
In the 80s, Philippe Vermès spent every summer with his family on a small lake in central New Hampshire, New England. It was there that he met his first “bikers” at their rallies in Laconia and Weirs Beach. Their look, their passion for their bikes and their free spirit quickly fascinated him, and the artist wanted to find out more and approach the myth from the inside. The idea came to him to paint their portraits in the studio.
Bikers
So he set up a makeshift studio along the roadside near a gas station with a black fabric backdrop. He set up a 4X5 (9x12cm) wooden camera, an electronic flash and a softbox, and asked them to pose for him. The bikers, intrigued by the staging of the black fabric background, flashes and camera, as well as by the magic of the Polaroid negative/positive 55, came to pose with their bikes, wives, children, dogs and friends. Their kindness and humility touched the photographer deeply, and led him to follow them naturally to another gathering in Sturgis and Rapid City, South Dakota.
Biker Peter Fonda
And the result is deeply moving. The spirit of Easy Riders and Route 66 seem so close to us, so much so that the photographs show an unexpected but sincere image of deepest America, far from preconceived ideas. The photographer has used all his know-how to immortalize men like any others, simple, open and sensitive. The photographs need no explanation, they speak for themselves and become, no longer portraits of bikers, but a portrait of deepest America.
Le baiser
The bikers seem to be at one with their machines in a true symbiosis, proudly posing in their outfits alongside their riding companions. From a world we might have thought exclusively male, we discover the hidden, family side for some, while on others we discover the same passion shared as a couple. How about that shared kiss on the bike, where the man seems to be embracing the two “things” that are most important to him: his wife and his bike, the woman’s tattooed bare back seeming a natural extension of the bike’s frame, and the Lee jeans evoking the notion of authenticity. Philippe Vermès also reveals certain contradictions in his photographs, as in the case of this man posing proudly behind his motorcycle, but leaning on a cane nonetheless.
Biker à cagoule
For the opening of the exhibition on November 4, 2011, the makeshift studio resurfaced to offer the experience to collectors. Those who wished could have their photos taken on a Harley Davidson V-Rod in immediate print on single Polaroids with black and white negative, illuminated by an electronic flash. Watching Philippe Vermès take his shots highlighted the photographer’s attention to detail. Seeing him work with a 4×5 camera, with this concern for perfection of the moment, of the detail that would definitively change photography and its perfection, showed all the talent of Philippe Vermès as a portrait photographer, to our great delight.
Biker au drapeau
With these photographs, a veritable Polaroid of deepest America, Philippe Vermès lets us take the pulse of a multi-faceted America, but doesn’t ask us to judge these bikers immortalized on Polaroid, no. He simply asks us to accept them as they are. He simply asks us to accept them as they are. And that’s exactly what we do, with the greatest of pleasure.
Photo credits: with the courtesy of Galerie W.
Marie-Odile Radom
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
