Alberto García‑Alix — Bikers

Bikers — Alberto García-Alix

This first edition of Bikers by Alberto García-Alix, published in 1993 by La Tripulación, is part of the Darwin Bookshop because it captures the purest and most iconic distillation of García-Alix’s lifelong obsession: the motorcycle as mirror, weapon, and myth. The book documents the Spanish biker scene of the 1980s and early 90s—not from a distance, but from the inside, with García-Alix as both chronicler and participant.

Shot entirely in black and white, Bikers is composed of portraits, still lifes, and moments of motion and repair. Leather, oil, chrome, tattoos, open roads and disassembled engines populate its pages, but it’s the psychological charge of the images that defines the work. These aren’t stylised images of freedom—they are tough, intimate photographs of a subculture where identity is built through the machine. The book includes legendary portraits of García-Alix himself, his friends, lovers, and motorcycles, all held together by his precise chiaroscuro and lived proximity.

Published in a square format with glossy dust jacket and stark serif titling, Bikers has become one of the hardest to find and most important early photobooks from post-dictatorship Spain. At Darwin, this first edition is preserved not just as a cult object, but as a document of analogue obsession and subcultural belonging.

Technical Sheet

Title: Bikers
Artist / Author: Alberto García-Alix
Date: 1993
Technique / Printing Method: Offset printing
Medium / Materials: Hardcover with dust jacket
Dimensions: approx. 24 × 24 cm
Language: Spanish
Pages: Unpaginated
Publisher / Editor: La Tripulación
Edition: First edition
Condition: Very good (light wear on dust jacket)