Humpback Weekend: Flashbacks of gay bikers

Sunny weekend in 1967. Photographer Sylvan Rand went to a remote farm near New Jersey with his friend. The hours spent there turned into a hazy mix of food, cigarettes, love and speed. Silvan was among the members of an unofficial motorcycle club for gay men. They often got together to chat, arrange races and trips, or just relax in their little utopian world.

(Total 12 photos)

Source: Sylvan Rand

The members of the club, at first glance, ordinary men who worked hard all week and now, with the onset of the weekend, just wanted to relax. The widespread image of a biker of that time was dictated by the then fashionable Hells Angels motorcycle club. In a series of photographs created during his time among "non-traditional" bikers, Rand emphasizes that his characters are very different from the usual image of "tough men". They are not steel guys, cutting tracks on two wheels, but ordinary people.

To each of them, Rand was an alien; he had only been given access to the company of these men for a few days. But by the end of the weekend, the feeling of awkwardness completely disappeared. Already after the shooting, Silvan admitted that he would never be able to forget all the conflicting feelings that he experienced when he watched these people through the camera lens.

Looking at the negatives he made in the late 60s, the photographer feels only gratitude for this experience. He was not and never will be part of this special company, in which the love of motorcycles and homosexuality are just two of the many things that united these men. The atmosphere of unity and intimacy that he felt then sometimes still touches a couple of invisible strings of his soul.