Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Danny Lyon
Crossing the Ohio near Louisville

1966

About the Item

Danny Lyon (born 1942), is a self-taught American photographer and filmmaker. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he is also credited as an accomplished writer to accompany his photographs. He studied history at the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963. That same year, he published his first photographs working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His pictures appeared in The Movement, a documentary book about the Southern Civil Rights Movement. Later, Lyon began creating his own books. His first, was a study of outlaw motorcyclists in the collection Bikeriders (1967), where Lyon did more than just photograph motorcyclists in the American Midwest from 1963 to 1967. Additionally, he also became a member of the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle club and traveled with them, sharing their lifestyle. According to Lyon himself, the photographs were "an attempt to record and glorify the life of the American bikerider." The series was immensely popular and influential in the 1960s and 1970s. The Destruction of Lower Manhattan was Lyon's next work, published by Macmillan Publishers in 1969. 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 originally sold for one dollar each, but soon attained the status of a collector's item. It was later 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 fourteen month period in 1967 to 1968. The series was printed to book in 1971 by Holt publishing. The introduction of Lyon's book 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." Lyon befriended many of the prisoners. The book also includes texts taken from prison records, letters from the convicts, and inmate artwork. In particular, the book focuses on the case of Billy McCune, a convicted rapist whose death sentence was commuted to life in prison during the climax of the book's popularity. In the foreword, Lyon describes Billy 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", meaning that the photographer has become immersed, and is a participant, of the documented subject. Another work, I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt, is a collection of Polaroids taken of his children. In 2007 Powerhouse Books published Danny Lyon's Like a Thief's Dream. From the dustjacket: " Like a Thief's Dream, the first full length nonfiction book from photographer and filmmaker Danny Lyon, presents the story of James Ray Denton - thief, counterfeiter , and bank robber..." Danny Lyon received the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for photography in 1969, and in film making in 1979. He has had solo exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. He is the founding member of the photography group Bleak Beauty. He was greatly encouraged in his documentary work by curator Hugh Edwards.
  • Creator:
    Danny Lyon (1942, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1966
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Signed, dated and titled in pencil with printer's stamp on verso.
  • Gallery Location:
    Santa Monica, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU14924203

More From This Seller

View All
Albert Einstein
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Category

1940s Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Robert Oppenheimer
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Category

1950s Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Audrey Hepburn, Rockefeller Tower, New York
By George Douglas
Located in Santa Monica, CA
This is all about the work of George Douglas, a brilliant photographer of the mid 20th Century. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s he worked for leading magazines of the day, both in Britain...
Category

1950s Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Marx Brothers
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Category

1940s Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Henry Moore
By Yousuf Karsh
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Karsh is a master 20th Century photographer. Karsh is known for his portraits of authors, scientists, artists, statesmen, musicians, and other dis...
Category

1940s Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Peacock, Jaipur, India
By Marc Riboud
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Riboud was born in 1923 in Lyon. At the Great Exhibition of Paris in 1937, he took his first pictures with the small Vest-Pocket camera his father gave him. During the war, he took p...
Category

1950s Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

You May Also Like

The Rolling Stones (Limited Edition of 25), 24x48 In - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
The Rolling Stones, a 1989 black and white stitched photograph shot for their "Steel Wheels " world tour, starring Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Ronnie Wood. This Photo...
Category

1980s Other Art Style Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Jane March (Limited Edition of 25) - 20x24 In. - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This fine art print features actress and model Jane March, posed topless on the rooftop of the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris in 1992. This risqué iconic b...
Category

1990s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Swan, With Leda (Limited Edition of 25) - 30x40 In Fine Art Print
Located in New York, NY
This 2009 photograph by legend photographer, John Stoddart depicts “The Swan with Leda.” It was inspired from the mythology of the Greek story of Leda and the Swan, when the God Zeus...
Category

Early 2000s Conceptual Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Tilda Swinton (Limited Edition of 25), 30x40 In - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This 1986 black and white photograph was shot by British celebrity and fashion photographer, John Stoddart, captures Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton,...
Category

1980s Young British Artists (YBA) Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Daniel Craig Contact Sheet (Limited Edition of 25) - 30x40 In Celebrity Print
Located in New York, NY
This is a 2002 contact sheet (a positive print of all the negative images from a roll of 35mm film or medium format film) of youthful-looking Daniel Craig...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Tilda Swinton (Limited Edition of 25) - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This 1986 black and white photograph was shot by British celebrity and fashion photographer, John Stoddart, captures Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton,...
Category

1980s Young British Artists (YBA) Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Recently Viewed

View All