Danny Lyon Prints and Photographs 1963 - 2023
DANNY LYON. Navajo Pool Room, Gallup, New Mexico, 1970, 8.75 x 12.75′′, gelatin silver print.
Written and Photo Edited by Joe Cuccio
Danny Lyon’s prolific career, spanning 60 years, has been built upon exploring people, places, and land through photographs and montages. He has been at the forefront of documenting various civil rights issues within the United States through vivid and thought-provoking portraiture. More recently he has been turning his lens to New Mexico’s diverse landscapes to expose the harrowing effects of climate change.
The show opened at the wonderful Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it will be on display through the new year on January 13th,2024. They have beautifully highlighted the many different impactful images from Daniel Lyon’s long-standing career while bringing a fresh take to more contemporary works centered around the New Mexico area. Lyon has spent many decades calling New Mexico home and has a deep archive of imagery that represents his family, friends, and neighbors through emotive portraiture.
Within this show specifically, we see the highlight of his place of residency for many years, New Mexico. Through the image collage, “What Hopes Have Perished with You, My Son”, (The Grave of Johnnie Sanchez), in 1987, Lyon can display the essence of loss through the communication of many images. This cluster of imagery is focused on depictions of a young man who has been taken too soon. These images were based in Lyon’s hometown of Barnillo, New Mexico, adding a dimension that allows the piece to feel different from his singular images. With his incredibly moving style of creating portraits as a centerpiece to the surrounding depictions of graves entrenched in snow, we get a sense of what this loss means. The bitter cold elevates a feeling of a void being left behind by the death of Johnnie Sanchez. This collage of images is incredibly powerful, giving viewers nuanced insight into how connected Danny Lyon is to this New Mexican community.
DANNY LYON, What Hopes Have Perished with You, My Son (The Grave of Johnnie Sanchez), 1987, 16.25 x 16.25", vintage gelatin silver print and c-prints
The well-known works of Lyon come from his more activist-based imagery that is widely regarded. He spent many years creating portraits that engage in complex stories of strife. Lyon humanizes the individuals he engages with, as they are experiencing a lack of regard for their rights. One particular image where this idea reigns true is “Shakedown, Ellis Unit, Texas”, where we see a glimpse at his engagement in photographing the Texas prison system. Here is a prisoner being patted down by a corrections officer, and what is most arresting about the image is the intense gaze of the subject. The man being frisked stares off above the lens into the distance beyond the camera and gives the viewer a sense of the struggle he has gone through. His eyes reveal a mournful reflection on where he has found himself and the experiences he has been exposed to throughout his time within the prison system.
DANNY LYON, Shakedown, Ellis Unit, Texas, 1968, 12.5 x 18.5”, gelatin silver print.
What is also highlighted is some of the iconic imagery centered around the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club. Through his images of this group, Lyon documented the menacing nature of this group. Specifically, the image “From Lindsey’s Room, Louisville, KY, 1966”, offers a glimpse of these men patrolling the streets. These bikers pose an implied threat that the image heightens as the viewer is positioned to look down upon them, hiding behind the curtain at the top of the frame. The way Lyon was able to capture the rough essence of this group was astounding.
DANNY LYON. From Lindsey's Room, Louisville KY, 1966, 8.5 x 13′′, gelatin silver print.
With the photojournalistic achievements highlighted throughout this exhibition, we see a more contemporary look at addressing the increasingly invasive issue of climate change that is becoming more prevalent in his homeland. Lyon began to explore the dryness of the landscape in his image “The Rio Puerco Seen from South of Cabezon, New Mexico, 2019”. What directly translates to ‘muddy river’ is seldom a river. Due to the severe weather increase, and rise in the severity of climate change, Lyon points to the sun-baked river amidst a vast piece of land that is parched, hoping for water to return. His imagery has taken a turn from the usual portraits and begun to point to how the land is rapidly changing, and not for the better.
Lyon has continued to make these incredibly emotional images of pictures and places for many years. His ability to capture the core of what it means to be present in a time, place, and space is astounding.
DANNY LYON, The Rio Puerco Seen from South of Cabezon, New Mexico, 2019, 6.25 x 18”, archival pigment ink print.
