Danny Lyon reviews, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity by Mike Brodie.
“Great photography touches the soul. In 2003, Mike Brodie was a teenager in Pensacola, Florida, living with his mother; his father was far off in Arizona, doing ten years in prison.
Young Mike and his friend Savannah figured out the simple scam” ….
American Heros
Martin Luther King – Life without Parole John Lewis – Three life sentences Julian Bond – Thirty years, isolation unit Malcolm X – Death James Forman – Fifty years, Conspiracy Diane Nash – Life Fannie Lou Hammer – Twenty-Five years Bradley Manning – Forty years, isolation Edward Snowden – Death, changed to Life without Parole, … Continue reading
Danny Lyon films on DVD
The complete films are now available on DVD for purchase with Pay Pal. Most are $29. Institutional purchase is $100. Scenes from each film are now live at bleakbeauty http://www.bleakbeauty.com/film.html
Deep Sea Diver: Danny Lyon in China, 2005-2009
Beginning with an invitation as an “honored guest” at the 2005 Ping Yao Photo Festival, Lyon left the walls of the ancient city to photograph an opera, presented on a raised wooden platform to the mostly older residents. That led to six trips to China, all to Shanxi, a highly polluted coal producing province in the Northwest Corner, bordering outer Mongolia … Read more
Definitions of Democracy, part Two
The purpose of Democracy is Democracy In part One of this thought, posted a couple years ago, the streets of NYC were praised as among the highest examples of Democracy in the history of man. A few weeks after, having nothing to do with the blog, Occupy moved into Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. (An … Continue reading
Happy Birthday Robert Frank
Robert Frank spoke no english when in 1947 he landed in New York City at the age of twenty three, and sitting at lunch counters on Broadway would order pies, which he could see on display on the counter, by pointing at them. By 1959 he would publish a book of photographs, first in France, … Continue reading
There goes New York
The sea level was supposed to rise “in a hundred years”. Then on Monday it happened. Manhattan island had a world record thirteen feet of water above the high tide level come up and over the southern wall into Battery Park, a few hundred yards from the headquarters of Goldman Sachs. Manhattan island, the Athens … Continue reading
The End of the Age of Photography – The Conclusion
It is five years since The End of the Age of Photography first appeared on bleakbeauty.com on Oct 20, 2007. It was also delivered as at a symposium at Stanford University, where Muybridge created much of his Animals in Motion. This is the Fourth and final installment. The End of the Age of Photography – … Continue reading
Juan’s Children Stay in Amerika
It is not often that we awake to good news from our government. Like Lincoln with the Emancipation Proclamation, President Obama has given protection from deportation to a million young immigrants inside our borders, most of them Mexicans. And he did it from within a government, that other than killing people and collecting taxes, hasn’t … Continue reading
Juan Stays Home
“I am glad juans mom died . I hope he dies in beanerville. You too wetback asskisser.” Here is a comment this blog just received. It is almost poetic, as if these were lines in a play by Jean Genet, perhaps delivered by a small white prisoner, handcuffed in his cell, as he were about … Continue reading
Remarkable Article “Worlds to Conquer: The Photography of Danny Lyon” by Kim Beil Published In Summer Photographer’s Forum
This article touches on many things including the Menil show and Deep Sea Diver. Kim Beil is a new young writer and I thought you would enjoy seeing it.
PFMAY12_Danny_Lyon (pdf, 640k)
Albuquerque is burning….Again
Leaving a downtown theater after a showing of Men in Black Three the smoke outside was so heavy that I told Nancy to go get the car while I hid inside the glass enclosure of an air-conditioned restaurant. Smoke from 80,000 burning acres in the Gila Wilderness, 150 miles to the south is blanketing the … Continue reading
Juan Goes Home
Reading the opening of Jean Paul Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew, he argues that Anti-Semitism (dislike of, avoidance of, negative table talk about, hatred of, and extermination of Jews – he wrote this in 1947) was a Passion, not an Opinion. An Opinion is “You can’t trust Jews”, “They didn’t serve France in enough numbers in … Continue reading
In Memoriam JASON MARTIN
born in Idaho, died in the Hudson Valley April 2012
The first time Jason came to me was on my farm in the Hudson Valley. It was because I needed someone to help me with the Internet, with digital editing, with Photoshop, to bring me … Read more
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