The Artist and the Congressman
John Lewis with Danny Lyon at the Whitney in front of the 1963 picture Lyon made as SNCC’s Julian Bond and John Lewis stand before the ruins of the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham. The previous morning a KKK bomb had killed four young girls inside the church. “The Artist and the Congressman” a … Continue reading
The End of the Age of Photography (Pt. II)
The Digi and The End of the World as We Have Known and Loved it. These Digis are very attractive little buggers. The cameras have made “photography” as ubiquitous as mosquitoes, they are everywhere. It’s hard to believe they are part of the collapse of our civilization. I was just riding the PATH from Jersey … Continue reading
The End of the Age of Photography (Pt. I)
The End of the Age of Photography (Part One) Many years ago I was being driven along central park west in a NYC Taxi and talking with Robert Frank whom I sat beside. When I spoke of using words with photography, texts, as part of what were then called “photography books”, Robert said, “well, then … Continue reading
Danny Lyon – Like A Thief’s Dream, signed copies for sale
“I do not know of a book that cuts into and reveals the prison system and the subtle strange fates and characters of the guys. Not Mailer or Capote. Like your pictures you have a way of just letting the reality do the talking eloquently. “ Peter di Lissovoy “Like a Thief’s Dream” The amazing … Continue reading
“The Innocent Man”
This letter was written to Dinker (Harold Davey Cassell#73885) by Helen Vanlandingham. The story of McLaughlin and Jimmy Renton’s murder of an Arkansas policeman is told in “Like a Thief’s Dream”.Copies are available direclty from bleakbeauty.com. Dinker has just filed his last appeal. Helen is Don McLaughlin’s sister. Dinker has been in prison for thirty … Continue reading
Proud Daddy
My daughter, Gabrielle Lyon is Executive Director of Project Exploration which is located in Chicago. She created the organization along with her husband Dr. Paul Sereno in order to radically change how science is taught to young people. Much of Project X’s work involves working with inner city children, some of whom they take to … Continue reading
“I will not vote one penny for that war”
Yesterday I was speaking with Congressman John Lewis of Georgia by phone, mostly personal talk. Then I said; “How do you feel about what we are doing in Afghanistan?” And my old friend answered, “I will not vote one penny for that war”. How many other members of congress are non-violent? Why doesn’t the media … Continue reading
From New Mexico — Cambio means Change
Cambio means change — nickels and dimes for dollars, or centavos for pesos. Change happens slowly. Change is hard to see. Young people make change, but old people recognize it first. That is because old people remember the past. The way to change Amerika is to change the Media. Today on the radio here in … Continue reading
The Digital Dark Age
Trying to read Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s new Booker Prize winning novel I noticed the text was not centered on the page. On every page, there was at least an eighth of an inch of white space on the right side of the page, above the text, than there was on the left. In other … Continue reading
Google and the Narrowing of Knowledge
I am reading The Wilderness Warrior, Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley, a real page turner if you like to spend time in the American wilderness. You almost wish Teddy was president today. He’d take care of Global Warming. Probably shoot a couple people driving Hummers, and demolish a coal burning … Continue reading
“America the beautiful”
The best way to learn anything about America is to talk to someone else. Having breakfast in a diner in Greenport, Long Island, I talked to the cook. After making the eggs, he was outside to wash the windows. The young Latino’s teeth were spaced and crooked, his right arm covered with some fine Aztec … Continue reading
Google vs The Bikeriders
The Bikeriders 1968, The Destruction of Lower Manhattan 1969, and Conversations with the Dead 1971, were all out of print within two years of their publications. They had all been remaindered by their publishers and would remain out of print for at least twenty years each. “Conversations” is still out of print. Under Google’s new … Continue reading
Walter Cronkite RIP
Recently there was a ceremony to honor Walter Cronkite, who has passed away. “Everyone” was there, including our President Obama. Obama? What was he doing there? Walter is held up as an example for all journalists. I must have missed something. By the nineteen seventies, as I tried to understand what was happening to our … Continue reading
Memories of Myself, Photo Essays by Danny Lyon
http://www.amazon.com/Danny-Lyon-Memories-Myself/dp/0714848514
Memories of Myself, the Photo Essays of Danny Lyon. This new book from Phaidon, is ready after two years of work. Copies will reach Amerika in April, 2009.
Photojournalism from 1964 through 2002.
From “The Fisherman”, an unpublished excerpt
He sat in a Virginia jail cell, blood running down his head. Christ his head hurt. Was it the stitches? Or the fact that he had been knocked unconscious by long wooden baton. That morning they had walked the bridge that crossed the Potomac. He and Mark and Rachel, Mark holding the B&W home made … Continue reading
President Obama — SNCC’s Victory
Victory, after forty six years. This happened last night. This is for the children. It is for the grand children. This is the victory of the Movement. This is the victory of SNCC. What were they fighting for? Not just integration. Not even justice and the right to vote. They did not use the word … Continue reading
Grace Under Fire Part One — Zoriah at War
Zoriah war photographer Zoriah Miller, age 32, has done what few Americans ever do. He has put his principles before his future ability to earn a living. He was “dis-embedded” with the Marines in Iraq because he first refused to give up the pictures he made of dead US Marines, and then refused to remove … Continue reading
“Freedom is what I’m doin’ right now. ”
““Freedom is what I’m doin’ right now. Sittin’ down and talkin’ to you,” says Jesse Ruiz, one subject of MURDERERS, a man who had just spent eight and a half years in penitentiary for beating another man to death in Alphabet City with a Louisville Slugger. “Outside prison; this is freedom.” Freedom has perhaps never … Continue reading
Bleak Beauty Blog 