tisdag 28 september 2010

Hells Angels ride again: Never-before-published photographs from Life.com

In 1965 California, a gang ruled the roadways -- a brawling gang of outlaws called the Hells Angels. That year, Life magazine sent photographer Bill Ray to follow Buzzard, Hambone, Ruthie, Big D and other Angels -- and their "old ladies" -- on their stripped-down Harleys. Ray spent several weeks in Southern California, photographing and chronicling rowdy bikers and their equally rowdy girlfriends. Life.com released today a series of never-before-published photographs from that trip. Go back to a time when the roar of Harleys and the sight of long-haired bikers was still new, alien and -- for many average, law-abiding citizens -- simply terrifying.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2010/09/hells_angels_ride_again_never.html

Rolling Thunder

From Jesse James to Tony Soprano, outlaws have always held a singular if ambiguous place in America's popular imagination: we fear and loathe their appetite for violence, yet we envy and covet their freedom. In early 1965, LIFE photographer Bill Ray and writer Joe Bride spent several weeks with a gang that, to this day, serves as a living, brawling embodiment of our schizoid relationship with the rebel: the Hells Angels. Here, in a gallery of never-published photographs, Ray and Bride recall their days and nights with Buzzard, Hambone, Big D, and other Angels (and their "old ladies") at a time when the roar of Harleys and the sight of long-haired bikers was still new, alien, and for the average, law-abiding citizen, simply terrifying. Above: Hells Angels, 1965 -- the one previously published image in this gallery. None of the pictures that follow have ever been seen before.

http://www.life.com/image/ugc1129811/in-gallery/47471/never-seen-hells-angels-1965

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