On-set photographer Kyle Bono Kaplan and art photographer Brian Schutmaat to showcase their work taken while shooting Jeff Nichols’ film “The Bikeriders” in a new coffee table book titled “Vandals: The Photography of the Bikeriders” Have cooperated.
,bike riderNichols and the Stars is a play directed by Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy. It is adapted from the book by Danny Lyon, and follows the rise and fall of a fictional motorcycle club in the 1960s Midwest. Michael Shannon, Mike Feist and Norman Reedus participated in the group.
The book will be released on May 8, published by Inside Edition, and the film will be released on June 21. Here Kaplan and Schutmaat share the stories behind rare moments on set.
Kaplan caught Hardy, who played Johnny, in the middle of a take as the actor was walking back to the set. Kaplan observed natural light and was amazed by the illumination of trees. As he waited for Hardy to complete the take, he waited and captured the actor using a “long lens with a slow shutter speed”. “I really wanted that shot,” says Kaplan.
Similarly, Schutmaat was looking at Lyon’s work and found himself inspired to take photographs of the cast and extras from behind. “I liked what the costume department did with the text, I found it attractive, and we used the logo elsewhere inside the book because we really liked it.”
Schutmaat was further inspired by Lyon’s work, this time he shot actor Michael Shannon through a window. “Danny would often take photographs from windows, windshields, and car windows, so I had that in mind,” explains Schutmaat.
At this moment, Shannon was in the middle of a take and waiting to go back to the set. Schutmaat says he had to bend down to get the camera level with the car window to capture it at that angle. “He wasn’t acting there. He’s just relaxing, and I love a sense of authenticity in photographs, and I think this moment demonstrates that.
Kaplan wanted a photo of Butler on his bike. It was to be shot as a hero for the promotion of the book and the film. So, Kaplan needed to fix it.
The crew had access to the bridge for a few hours and so they mounted a camera crane on a car to capture the scene. Kaplan also had his monochrome camera attached to the crane. “It was a shot of shots, a hero shot, and I wanted to pay tribute to the past and pay homage to Danny.” “Austin did that sequence in two takes, and I had my camera set up,” says Kaplan. It was at hyperfocal distance. I taped the lens shut, and sent the camera out with a two-second interval timer.
Kaplan says, “That was the only frame where Austin is looking back, and it’s the only frame we used.”
Paying homage, this photo is a mirror-image of Lyon’s shot. “It’s nice to showcase it like this because it shows that we’re looking at cinema and Austin. It is a merging of the cinematic world and the photographic world in one frame, simply by turning it into an actor and displaying the face.
“Vandals: The Photography of the Bikeriders” is available to purchase Amazon,
