Photo Literature: Danny Lyon and Nan Goldin
The Rebel’s Scrapbook is Lyon’s latest in his life struggle to combine pictures and text on the printed page. Published by Bleak Beauty, in a very limited number of 500 copies, this already rare book is only available on this blog via PayPal. Barry Schwabsky had the insight to link The Rebel’s Scrapbook with Nan Goldin’s masterpiece, Sisters, Saints and Sibyls, recently re-issued by Thames and Hudson. Great suffering produces great art. Nan’s story is of the sister she loved and lost. It’s a painful read, and meant to be. When it was first issued twenty one years ago, Lyon wrote that Nan’s book was a work of Photo Literature. This was a new category of work, begun with The Bikeriders (which is half text), and Danny Seymour’s A Loud Song, which also revolutionized “photo books” by including family photos, letters, found photographs and text. The world has still not caught up with these new works, which are now widely imitated.
