Meet Martin Henderson, or Harley Martin as he is known in the business. A one-time Hells Angel, President of the Unknown Nomads MC in Southern Spain, a fully committed one percenter and long-time friend of George Christie (the longest serving president of the Hells Angels worldwide).
I met Martin last week when he came into my store and tried to buy a book I have on the original Hells Angels of San Bernardino. It’s a book on the photo documentary that Life Magazine commissioned their then resident photographer Bill Ray to do. Bill spent several months living with and photographing members of the motorcycle club during 1965. However, the magazine didn’t like the story, or the images or what these people represented and the work was promptly assigned to the vaults, never to see the light of day until many years later.
It’s one of my Favourite books: Not because I want to be a Hells Angel (although secretly I do), but because it’s an incredible insight into a counter culture of that time; which grew into the global organisation that it is today. So when Martin walked into my store and his friend Spider, started telling me who Martin was, I sensed a rare photographic opportunity to add to the rich and often chequered story of the characters behind the motorcycle gangs of today.
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