Lichter Photo | Motorcycle Photography

AKI SAKAMOTO - Aki Sakamoto has had a passion for Harley-Davidson motorcycles since he was a young boy growing up in Fukuoka, Japan. He eventually came to the USA to follow his passion by attending the Motorcycle Mechanic Institute, where after 3-years, he graduated in 1999. Aki then returned back to Japan, but this didn’t last long as his destiny seemed to be in the United States. He came back and worked for Jesse James at West Coast Choppers for a number of years before eventually opening his own shop, Hog Killers, in 2009. I met Aki in those years but didn’t have the opportunity to shoot one of his custom bikes in the studio until 2012 when I photographed his custom 1968 HD XLCH named Rainbow as well as the love machine "Glory Hole” he built for Yuriko Takeda. Since then, Aki has returned to my studio and also built a bike for my Naked Truth Sturgis exhibition in 2014. We also had an amazing trip together when I joined Aki to visit bike shops in Japan after Mooneyes that December. It was so great spending this time together, sharing hotels, learning from him about Japanese culture and ways, getting to be better friends and of course his introductions to so many Japanese builders. Visit Aki’s Hogkillers website at hogkillers.com.

Over the years, I have photographed more than a thousand custom bikes from the most famous custom builders to bikes built in the backyards of fairly obscure but passionate bikers. I shot Jesse James’, Billy Lane’s, Indian Larry’s and many other known builders’ first customs to be featured in Easyriders. The builders in this section include builders that I have photographed three or more of their bikes for feature stories. The photos posted here are typically found in other sections of the site under the year they were photographed, or in the case of portraits and lifestyle photographs, in the events from which they came. Please bear with us as we are going back through our archives to add more builders to this section as fast as we can. Clearly, there are many more I have shot 3 or more bikes from and just need to keep moving back through the years loading content to get them in this section.

BILLY LANE • Daytona Beach, FL • Instagram: @choppers.inc

PAUL YAFFE - I remember Paul coming into my studio while shooting at an Easyriders Bike Show in Los Angeles in the late 1990’s. It was the first time we met and I was very impressed. He called his shop "Paul Yaffe Originals” ("PYO”) and original he was. He had his incredible Oakland Roadster Show award winning custom "Prodigy” with him, which then became the first of many of Paul’s beautiful bikes I would photograph in the years since. We have met up at events all over the country, gone riding, had drinks, and I had a fantastic weekend at his wedding to Suzy. You can count on Paul for a great time, and together with Suzy, it gets even bigger! Dozens of his custom bikes going all the way back to Prodigy can be viewed on his PYO site at paulyaffeoriginals.com/pyo-projects or you can see dozens of his custom baggers from recent years (along with a huge array of custom parts that he has designed and offers for sale) on his "Bagger Nation” site at baggernation.com.

RICK BRAY • Leemore, CA • Instagram: @rkbkustomspeed • (559) 707-9308