Episode 07
Michael Lichter
Michael Lichter rode a motorcycle to the Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, for the first time in 1979—44 years ago. He documented that trip with a camera from the seat of his Harley-Davidson Shovelhead. Little did Lichter know that inaugural visit to the wildly popular biker party would lead to attending dozens more rallies and hundreds of other similar events and gatherings around the world.
Lichter fell in love with photography when he was a kid. By age 13, he had a working darkroom set up in the basement of his parents’ home. Even on school nights, he would work until the early hours of the morning, when his parents came knocking. Later, he began to focus his lens on the biker culture and the quickly expanding custom side of motorcycling.
In 2000, Lichter produced his first “Motorcycles As Art” exhibition, which morphed into a themed annual event staged initially at the Journey Museum in Rapid City. When the show outgrew that venue, Lichter moved it to Sturgis. From 2009 through 2022, the world-renowned artist curated the exhibit in a 7,000-square-foot gallery built specifically to house the show at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip.