Danny Lyon collection

Daniel Joseph Lyon was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1942, and worked as a photojournalist, filmmaker, and writer; he is best known for his films and essays focusing on human rights. Lyon called his work as a photographer “the existential struggle to be free.” He attended NYC public schools in Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, Queens. Lyon bought his first camera in 1959, an Exa SLR, in Munich, Germany during a summer trip with his family. He went to the University of Chicago and majored in philosophy and ancient history, graduating with his BA in 1963. While at the University of Chicago he worked as the first staff photographer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and first published the photographs of the SNCC the same year as his graduation in 1963. His photos were featured in a documentary book about the Civil Rights Movement in the south called The Movement.

From 1963 to 1967, Lyon was a member of and documented the Chicago Outlaws motorcycle club. Photographs and interviews with the club members were published in the book The Bikeriders in 1968. Beginning in 1967 he worked as a freelance photographer. The Destruction of Lower Manhattan, published by Macmillan Publishers in 1969, follows the demolition of Lower Manhattan in 1967 to make way for the Twin Towers and other new infrastructure. The photographs chronicled the streets, buildings, and former residents through the process of demolition. His next book published by Henry Holt and Co. in 1971 was Conversation with the Dead. The Texas Department of Corrections cooperated with Lyon as he photographed in six different maximum security prisons from 1967-8. He became friends with many of the prisoners and included their letters, records, and some artwork done by the inmates in the book.

Danny Lyon is associated with the New Journalism style; he would fully immerse himself in the situations he documented. Lyon received many awards in his lifetime including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1969 and 1978. Some of Lyon's films and videos include Los Niños Abandonados, Born to Film, Willie, and Murderers. He published the non-fiction book Like A Thief's Dream in 2007.

His website is bleakbeauty.com.