View source for Danny Lyon

{{short description|American photographer and filmmaker (born 1942)}}

{{Infobox artist
| name          = Danny Lyon
| image         = Danny Lyon.jpg
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = Lyon speaks at a [[Bernie Sanders]] [[Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign|presidential rally]] in Chicago, March 2019
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|1942|03|16|mf=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Brooklyn, New York]], U.S.
| nationality   = 
| spouse        = 
| children      = 
| field         = 
| movement      = [[New Journalism]]
| works         = ''The Bikeriders'', ''The Destruction of Lower Manhattan'', ''Conversations With The Dead'', ''I Like To Eat Right On The Dirt'', ''Like A Thief's Dream'', ''The Seventh Dog'', ''Deep Sea Diver'', ''Indian Nations''
| influenced by = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = 
| website       = {{URL|www.bleakbeauty.com}}
}}

'''Danny Lyon''' (born March 16, 1942)<ref>{{cite web|author=Alan Griffiths |url=http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/ACT_GCAL/AN/20100303/ |title=Calendar |publisher=Luminous Lint |access-date=2012-05-16}}</ref> is an American [[Documentary photography|photographer]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/may/15/danny-lyon-interview-photography|title=Danny Lyon: 'I put myself through an ordeal in order to create something'|first=Edward|last=Helmore|date=15 May 2012|access-date=28 November 2017|website=Theguardian.com}}</ref> and filmmaker.<ref name="ohagan-guardian">{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/20/danny-lyon-photographer-outlaw-bikers | date = 20 April 2014 | access-date = 4 November 2015 | first = Sean | last = O'Hagan | author-link = Sean O'Hagan (journalist) | work = [[The Guardian]] | location = London | title = Danny Lyon's inside shots}}</ref>

All of Lyon's publications work in the style of photographic [[New Journalism]],<ref name="bjp-seymour">{{cite web | url = http://www.bjp-online.com/2016/10/major-danny-lyon-retrospective-comes-to-london/ | date = 2 October 2016 | access-date = 12 January 2017 | first = Tom | last = Seymour | publisher = Apptitude Media | work = [[British Journal of Photography]] | title = Major Danny Lyon retrospective comes to London}}</ref> meaning that the photographer has become immersed in, and is a participant of, the documented subject. He is the founding member of the publishing group ''Bleak Beauty.''

After being accepted as the photographer for [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC), Lyon was present at almost all of the major historical events during the [[Civil Rights Movement]].<ref name="natgeo-lyon-bond">{{Cite web|title = Photographing the Civil Rights Movement: Danny Lyon and Julian Bond|url = http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/20/civil-rights-photography-a-conversation-with-danny-lyon-and-julian-bond/|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140124000831/http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/20/civil-rights-photography-a-conversation-with-danny-lyon-and-julian-bond/|url-status = dead|archive-date = January 24, 2014|website = Proof| date=20 January 2014 |access-date = 2015-11-16}}</ref>

He has had solo exhibits at the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], the [[Art Institute of Chicago]],<ref name="AIOC">{{cite web |title=Danny Lyon |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/15789/danny-lyon |website=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref> the [[Menil Collection]], the [[M. H. de Young Memorial Museum]] in San Francisco and the Center for Creative Photography at the [[University of Arizona]]. Lyon twice received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]]; a Rockefeller Fellowship,{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism;<ref name="missouri-honor-medal">{{Cite web|title = Missouri Honor Medal Winners: Individuals|url = http://journalism.missouri.edu/overlay-content/missouri-honor-medal-winners-individuals/| publisher = [[Missouri School of Journalism]] | access-date = 16 November 2015}}</ref> and a [[Lucie Awards|Lucie Award]].<ref name="lucie">{{cite web | url = http://www.lucies.org/2015-lucie-awards/ | access-date = 4 November 2015 | publisher = Lucie Foundation | title = 2015 honorees}}</ref>

==Early life==
Lyon was born in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York and is the son of Russian-Jewish mother Rebecca Henkin and German-Jewish father Dr. Ernst Fredrick Lyon. He was raised in Kew Gardens, Queens, and went on to study history and philosophy at the [[University of Chicago]], where he graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1963.

== Civil rights work ==
Lyon began his involvement in the [[civil rights movement]] in 1962 when he hitch-hiked to [[Cairo, Illinois|Cairo]], [[Illinois]] during a summer break after his junior year at the University of Chicago. He was inspired by a speech [[John Lewis]] had given at a church on his first day in Cairo. After his speech Lewis left to go attend a sit-in, Lyon was impressed by this, Lewis was putting action behind his words. Lyon then decided to march to a nearby segregated swimming pool, the demonstrators knelt down to pray as the pool-goers heckled them. Soon a truck came, it went through the crowd in an attempt to break it up, a young black girl was hit by the truck and Lyon knew that he wanted to be a part of the movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Everybody Says Freedom|last = Seeger|first = Bob|publisher = Norton|year = 1989|isbn = 0393306046|location = New York u.a|pages = 87–100}}</ref>  For a time after this, in the 1960s, Lewis and Lyon were roommates.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lewis | first = John | title = Walking with the wind : a memoir of the movement | page = 192 | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = New York, NY | year = 1998 | isbn = 9781476797717 }}</ref>

In September 1962, with a $300 donation by [[Harry Belafonte]], the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) flew Lyon to [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]] and the [[Mississippi Delta]] to cover voter registration workers. Shortly after, Lyon had a run-in with the police, one of whom threatened to kill him because when told they “didn’t mix the races down here”, Lyon claimed he had a Black grandfather. Lyon left town in order to keep all the pictures he had taken safe from being confiscated.<ref name=":0" />

In 1963 Lyon returned, but the SNCC was reluctant to bring him aboard as their photographer. One job Lyon participated in was getting a picture of some high-school girls who were in prison at the [[Leesburg Stockade]] without any charges against them. He hid in the back of a car while someone else drove him to the prison, and the young man who drove distracted the guards while Lyon snuck in the back to get the photo.<ref name=":0" />

After being accepted as the photographer for SNCC, Lyon was present at almost all of the major historical events during the movement capturing the moments with his camera.<ref name="natgeo-lyon-bond" />

His pictures appeared in ''The Movement: documentary of a struggle for equality'', a documentary book about the [[Civil Rights Movement]] in the southern region of the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hansberry |first1=Lorraine |title=The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality |date=1964 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |oclc=558219368}}</ref>

==Later work==
Later, Lyon began creating his own books. His first was a study of outlaw motorcyclists in the collection ''The Bikeriders'' (1968), where Lyon photographed, traveled with and shared the lifestyle of bikers in the [[American Midwest]] from 1963 to 1967.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/danny-lyons-bikeriders-are-back/|title=Looking Back at Danny Lyon's Iconic 1960s Photos of Bikers|date=17 April 2014|website=Vice.com|access-date=28 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/two-looks-at-danny-lyons-bikeriders-photos/?_r=0|title=Two Looks at Danny Lyon's 'Bikeriders' Photos|first=Phil|last=Patton|website=Wheels.blogs.nytimes.com|date=7 March 2013 |access-date=28 November 2017}}</ref> Living in a rented apartment in [[Woodlawn, Chicago]], Lyon followed the Chicago chapter of the [[Outlaws Motorcycle Club]] in an "attempt to record and glorify the life of the American bikerider". Seeking advice from [[Hunter S. Thompson]], who spent a year with the [[Hells Angels]] for his own book, ''[[Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs]]'', Thompson warned Lyon that he should "get the hell out of that club unless it's absolutely necessary for photo action."<ref name="Lyon's inside shots">[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/20/danny-lyon-photographer-outlaw-bikers Danny Lyon's inside shots] Sean O'Hagan, ''[[The Guardian]]'' (20 April 2014) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220918183310/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/20/danny-lyon-photographer-outlaw-bikers |date=September 18, 2022 }}</ref><ref name="Outlaws Club rides again">[https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/the-chicago-outlaws-motorcycle-club-rides-again/ The Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club rides again] Patrick Sisson, ''[[Chicago Reader]]'' (April 22, 2014) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109004440/https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/the-chicago-outlaws-motorcycle-club-rides-again/ |date= }}</ref> Lyon said of Thompson's response: "He advised me not to join the Outlaws and to wear a helmet. I joined the club and seldom wore a helmet". He was a full-fledged member of the Outlaws between 1966 and 1967.<ref name="Outlaws Club rides again"/> On his time as an Outlaws member, Lyon said: "I was kind of horrified by the end. I remember I had a big disagreement with this guy who rolled out a huge Nazi flag as a picnic rug to put our beers on. By then I had realised that some of these guys were not so romantic after all".<ref name="Lyon's inside shots"/> 

The series was immensely popular and influential in the 1960s and 1970s. By 1967, Lyon was invited to join [[Magnum Photos]]. After ''The Bikeriders'', he spent time documenting the lives of inmates in Texas prisons.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2NkN4pvS50YJjn7BqZY4n2x/chasing-outlaws-how-danny-lyon-changed-photography Chasing outlaws: How Danny Lyon changed photography] [[BBC]] (25 October 2016) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220918183041/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2NkN4pvS50YJjn7BqZY4n2x/chasing-outlaws-how-danny-lyon-changed-photography |date=September 18, 2022 }}</ref> During the 1970s, Lyon also contributed to the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]]'s [[DOCUMERICA]] project.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lyon, Danny, 1942-|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10568401|website=National Archives Catalogue|accessdate=April 27, 2022}}</ref>

In 1969, when Lyon returned from his work in Texas to [[New York City]], and had no place to live, the photographer [[Robert Frank]], famous by then for his 1958 book [[The Americans (photography)|''The Americans'']], took him in.  Lyon had met Frank two years earlier, at the end of a [[Happening]] that Lyon was part of, in New York City. Lyon lived with the Frank family for six months in the city, in an apartment on West 86th St.<ref>{{citation |last1=Lyon |first1=Danny |title=When Fathers Die: Remembering Robert Frank |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927224753/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/27/when-fathers-die-remembering-robert-frank/ | url=/https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/27/when-fathers-die-remembering-robert-frank/  |work=NYR Daily |publisher=[[New York Review of Books]] |date = September 27, 2019 |url-status=unfit |archive-date=27 September 2019}}</ref>

''The Destruction of Lower Manhattan'' (1969) was Lyon's next work, published by Macmillan Publishers in 1969.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Conversations with the Dead|last = Lyon|first = Danny|publisher = Henry Holt & Company, Inc.|year = 1971|isbn = 003085069X}}</ref>  The book documents the large-scale demolition taking place throughout [[Lower Manhattan]] in 1967.  Included are photographs of soon to be demolished streets and buildings, portraits of the neighborhood's last remaining stragglers and pictures from within the demolition sites themselves.  The book was eventually remaindered for one dollar each, but soon attained the status of a collector's item.  It was reprinted in 2005.

''Conversations with the Dead'' (1971) was published with full cooperation of the Texas Department of Corrections. Lyon photographed in six prisons over a 14-month period in 1967–68. The series was printed in book form in 1971 by Holt publishing. The introduction points to a statement of purpose that the penal system of Texas is symbolic for [[incarceration]] everywhere. He states, "I tried with whatever power I had to make a picture of imprisonment as distressing as I knew it to be in reality."

[[Image:lynch park boyz.jpg|thumb|270px|"Three boys and 'A Train' graffiti in Brooklyn's Lynch Park in New York City." By Danny Lyon, Brooklyn, NY, July 1974]]

Lyon befriended many of the prisoners. The book also includes texts taken from prison records, letters from convicts, and inmate artwork. In particular, the book focuses on the case of Billy McCune, a convicted rapist whose death sentence was eventually commuted to life in prison. In the foreword, Lyon describes McCune as a diagnosed [[psychotic]], who one evening, while awaiting execution, "cut his penis off to the root and, placing it in a cup, passed it between the bars to the guard."

All of Lyon's publications work in the style of photographic [[New Journalism]],<ref name="bjp-seymour" /> meaning that the photographer has become immersed, and is a participant, of the documented subject.

He is the founding member of the publishing group ''Bleak Beauty.'' He was greatly encouraged in his photography by curator of the [[Art Institute of Chicago]]<ref name="AIOC" /> [[Hugh Edwards (photographer)|Hugh Edwards]], who gave Lyon two solo exhibits as a young man.

Also a filmmaker and writer, Lyon's films and videos include ''Los Niños Abandonados'', ''Born to Film'', ''Willie'', and ''Murderers''. He has published the non-fiction book ''Like A Thief's Dream''.

In his book ''Pictures from the New World'' (1981), he presents a photo series documenting American motorcyclists sexually assaulting and gang [[Rape|raping]] an anonymous woman.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1994-02-06 |title=DANNY LYON: THE ART OF THE ROMANTIC OUTSIDER |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1994/02/06/danny-lyon-the-art-of-the-romantic-outsider/52afdced-3232-4cf4-9455-29d44dfbaeec/ |access-date=2025-10-02 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==Publications==
*''The Bikeriders.''
**London: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], 1968.
**Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-944092-91-0}}.
** New York City: [[Aperture Foundation|Aperture]], 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-59711-264-2}}. Facsimile edition.
*''Conversations With The Dead.''
**New York City: [[Henry Holt and Company]], 1971. {{ISBN|978-0030850691}}.
**''Conversations With The Dead: Photographs of Prison Life with the Letters and Drawings of Billy McCune #122054.'' {{ISBN|9780714870519}}. Digitally remastered facsimile edition with a new afterword by Lyon.
*''Pictures from the New World.'' New York City: Aperture, 1981.
*''I Like To Eat Right On The Dirt.'' Clintondale, NY: Bleak Beauty, 1989.
*''Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.''
**''Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.'' The Lyndhurst Series on the South. Center for Documentary Studies at [[Duke University]]; [[University of North Carolina Press|University of North Carolina]], 1992. {{ISBN|9780807820544}}. Edited by Alex Harris.
**''Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.'' Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms, 2010. {{ISBN|9781931885881}}.
*''Indian Nations.'' Twin Palms, 2002.
*''The Destruction of Lower Manhattan.'' New York City: [[PowerHouse Books|PowerHouse]], 2005.
*''Like A Thief's Dream.'' New York City: PowerHouse, 2007. Non-fiction book.
*''Memories of Myself''. London; New York City: [[Phaidon Press|Phaidon]], 2009.
*''Deep Sea Diver.'' London; New York City: Phaidon, 2011.
*''The Seventh Dog.'' London; New York City: Phaidon, 2014.
*''Burn Zone.'' Albuquerque, NM: Bleak Beauty. {{OCLC|962373165}}. With texts by Josephine Ferorelli.

==Filmography==
*''Los Niños Abandonados''
*''Born to Film''
*''Willie''
*''Murderers''

==Awards==
*1969: [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] from the [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]]<ref name="guggenheim-fellowship">{{cite web|url = http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/danny-lyon/ | access-date = 12 January 2017 | publisher = [[John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation]] | title = Danny Lyon}}</ref>
*1978: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation <ref name="guggenheim-fellowship" />
*1980s: Fellowship in Film making from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]]{{Citation needed|date=November 2015}}
*2011: Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, [[Missouri School of Journalism]], [[University of Missouri]], Columbia, MO<ref name="missouri-honor-medal" /><ref>{{Cite web|title = Danny Lyon gets major award {{!}} Photography {{!}} Agenda {{!}} Phaidon|url = http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2011/july/14/danny-lyon-gets-major-award/|website = Phaidon|access-date = 2015-11-16}}</ref>
*2015: [[Lucie Awards]], "Achievement in Documentary" category<ref name="lucie" />
*2022: Induction into the [[International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Danny Lyon |url=https://iphf.org/inductees/danny-lyon/ |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=International Photography Hall of Fame |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of photographers of the civil rights movement]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{Official website|www.bleakbeauty.com}}
* [https://vimeo.com/user65587177 The films of Danny Lyon on Vimeo]
* [https://snccdigital.org/people/danny-lyon/ SNCC Digital Gateway: Danny Lyon], Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and grassroots organizing from the inside-out
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/arts/design/26kenn.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=danny%20lyon&st=cse  "Stubbornly Practicing His Principles of Photography," ''New York Times'', April 26, 2009]
*[https://www.wsj.com/articles/danny-lyon-message-to-the-future-review-from-civil-rights-to-occupy-1469658064 "‘Danny Lyon: Message to the Future’ Review: From Civil Rights to Occupy"], by Richard B. Woodward, ''The Wall Street Journal'', July 27, 2016
* An Interview with Filmmaker Danny Lyon [https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2017/04/19/an-interview-with-filmmaker-danny-lyon-part-i/ Part I] and [https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2017/04/20/an-interview-with-filmmaker-danny-lyon-part-ii/ Part II], [[Chicago Film Society]], 2017
* {{YouTube | title=Representative John Lewis in Conversation with Danny Lyon | id=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfnYrOqkBfs}}, at the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]]

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{Outlaws Motorcycle Club}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon, Danny}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American photojournalists]]
[[Category:Motorcycling writers]]
[[Category:Outlaws Motorcycle Club]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Journalists from New York City]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Filmmakers from New Mexico]]
[[Category:Artists from New Mexico]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:Photographers from New Mexico]]
[[Category:Jews from New Mexico]]