If there's one thing we can blame Kenneth Anger for as much as we can Andy Warhol, it's the romanticization of the gay biker. The images that gave the American Dream the infusion of bondage it was waiting for, and gave gay culture (or at least gay men) a measure of exotic desire and visibility that complemented activism, was also heavy on myth and secret communion, and maybe short on community.

A present exhibition, "Band of Bikers," comes with its own mythology. Scott Zieher of ZieherSmith found a group of anonymous, untitled photographs dated to the early 1970s in a Manhattan basement featuring men on bikes and in tribes, posing for photogs and joking around. The press release compares these small, intimate images to the set for Anger's arch-serious Scorpio Rising, but if so, the outtakes include bloopers. These images are warm and loose: the subjects leather-clad, yes, but candid and even goofy. Gay bikers, they're just like us.


BAND OF BIKERS OPENS FEBRUARY 25. ZIEHER SMITH IS LOCATED AT 516 WEST 20 STREET, NEW YORK.