The Bikeriders – Original Audio Recordings
In 1966, in Chicago, Danny Lyon sat down with some of his favorite people that he knew as a member of the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club. When the director Jeff Nichols approached Lyon about making a film based on the 1968 book, The Bikeriders, Lyon gave Jeff access to all his original ¼ inch analogue tapes. These … Continue reading
ICE attacks – November 2025, Chicago
A dark cloud has descended upon America. Armed masked men are in our communities, seizing Brown and Black Americans. They act with impunity. The local police, hired and paid to protect us, do not interfere. In Chicago this reporter spent one day, chasing ICE. A single day. A new Cadillac Eldorado was parked in an … Continue reading
The Films of Danny Lyon Now Available on YouTube
You can stream the majority of Danny Lyon’s films on YouTube and Vimeo for free, including his latest “Beat the Drum Slowly”. View Bleak Beauty Films on YouTubeView Bleak Beauty Films on Vimeo
New Photos From Guy Russell
Painter, early photo gallery owner, book Designer, Guy Russell’s work is part of the origin story of Bleak Beauty. A consummate artist in every field he works in, look at the perfection he brings to these pictures, all made within walking distance of his New England home and studio. Guy calls the series “Returning to … Continue reading
“Unknown and Beautiful”
ON THE MAKING OF THE BOOK, THE BIKERIDERS “I used to be afraid that when Angels became movie stars and Cal the hero of a book, the bikerider would perish on the coffee tables of America. But now I think that this attention doesn’t have the strength of reality of the people that it aspires … Continue reading
WALLGREENS: FIRED FOR COUPONS
Our Walgreens is a mile away. Corner of 550 and 313 in Bernalillo. Many of the customers are pueblo Indians and many employees are Natives. Nancy is a seventy-year-old Jemez native that has worked there for nine years, until she was fired for giving out coupons. Zach, the manager said “There is nothing I can … Continue reading
Students Expand your Demands
Caption: Bernie Sanders and Bob Brown, conducting the first northern sit-in of the civil rights movement in December 1961, at the University of Chicago. A number of schools have expanded their demands beyond the halting of the violence is Gaza and justice for Palestine. Both Brown and the University of Chicago students have asked … Continue reading
Danny Lyon with Rania Matar
An American Jew with a Palestinian at AIPAD.Photographer Rania Matar, born in Jordan to a Palestinian family and Lyon, born in NYC to Russian and German Jewish immigrants, admire and love each other. War, this new war, and all wars are state organized insanity. The protests on campuses are good and they are spreading. We … Continue reading
Danny Lyon and Bill Ayers in Chicago March 30
Danny Lyon, AB’63, will be speaking about his new memoir, “This is My Life I’m Talking About,” at the Seminary Co-op on Saturday, March 30th. The Bikerider and SNCC activist will be in conversation with one of the greatest activists of the later 20th Century, co-founder of the Weather Underground, writer and professor, Bill Ayers. This … Continue reading
Book signing Chicago
Danny Lyon’s new memoir, This is My Life I’m Talking About, is about to be released by the great Italian publisher, Damiani. Lyon will be at the first of a series of book signings in Chicago, near the University where Lyon’s life as a photo-journalist began. It will be followed by two more signings in … Continue reading
A Call for Action
There are times in the course of our lives when we must speak out, and we must act. The world is burning. Our civilization is threatened in an unprecedented way. Neither the Nazi’s nor the dropping of the Atom Bomb posed as great a threat to human kind as this moment does to civilization itself. … Continue reading
Lyon at home on Camera
This is perhaps the best filmed interview of Lyon discussing his work that has ever been made. Shot by a KNMTV crew working for a local PBS show, Colores! It was made on the occasion of the current ABQ Museum show, Danny Lyon – Journey West. The show is up through the last Sunday in … Continue reading
http:instagram.com/dannylyonphotos2
The author has been locked out of his IG account! I can see it, as you can, but I can no longerpost anything on it. I cannot express a political, social or aesthetic opinion, I cannot even post a poem,its bosses, META, will not let me. And we thought corporations were powerful in the 1960’s.This … Continue reading
The Speech that was never given at the induction to the Photographer’s Hall of Fame
The following was what I was supposed to read, but never did….. “The journey that brought me here today began sixty years ago, across the river in East St Louis. It was the summer of 1962, and I was waiting for a bus to take me down the river to Cairo, Illinois. Over my life I … Continue reading
Lynsey Addario in Kiev 
Lynsey Addario’s (#lynseyaddario) Lynsey Addario’s (@lynseyaddario) picture of dead children near Kiev is one of the truly great war photographs. She has some competition. Gardner’s picture of a dead civil war soldier, his rifle by his side. (Garner moved the rifle and might have moved the soldier’s body too.) Capa’s death of a Spanish soldier … Continue reading
The Pictures of Guy Russell
Painter and book designer, Guy Russell’s work is part of the origin story of Bleak Beauty. See a selection of the artist’s newest work in photography, Returning to Dust, here: https://bleakbeauty.com/picture-essays/guy-russell/
SNCC Film free on Vimeo!
The 74 Minute doc “SNCC” is now free and open on Vimeo. Anyone can see it. For any college or museum or public showings please contact Bleak Beauty staffer, Cody Edison at edison.cody@gmail.com. The film was made from scanning all of Lyon’s original negatives from 1962 through 1964 made when he was the SNCC staff … Continue reading
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