Romualdas Požerskis “Restless Riders”

In the early 1970s, just a few years before he became one of Lithuania’s most renowned photographers, Romualdas Požerskis was still a student at the Kaunas Technical Institute, devoting his youth in the company of a small group of like-minded friends to the ideals represented by motorcycles, travel, and freedom. From 1971 to 1975, Požerskis, his classmate Virgis Lankas, his cousin Petras Pocius, and Zenonas Langaitis rode across Lithuania on their motorcycles, sometimes venturing even further – to Tallinn, Estonia. At the time, none of these young riders associated themselves with any greater biker movement or with the hippie community then thriving in Kaunas. Still, traveling, freedom, and their sometimes romantic and dramatic experiences on the road, were inevitably linked to the alternative culture of the West and its rebellious spirit. Romualdas and his friends listened to The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. They read Jack Kerouac, made their own biker jackets with fringed sleeves and bell-bottom jeans and dreamed of a free Lithuania without political or ideological restrictions, without limitations on personal liberty.