“Among a group of revolutionaries whose work rose to prominence in the late 1960s and ’70s and transformed the nature of documentary photography — a group that includes friends and colleagues of Mr. Lyon’s like Mary Ellen Mark and Larry Clark — the idea of conscience has been imbedded more deeply in Mr. Lyon’s photographs than in those of all but a few of his contemporaries.”
This is from “Stubbornly Practicing His Principle of Photography,” a wonderful article by Randy Kennedy published in The New York Times on April 24. It’s a great read for anyone interested in documentary photography, photojournalism, consciousness photography or the name Kennedy seems to favor for Danny Lyon’s work: New Journalism. As Kennedy explains:
“Like Mr. Clark, who blurred the line between observer and participant and wanted to confront middle-class viewers with the American underclass, Mr. Lyon has made a peripatetic attempt to photograph people who are generally unseen or unwanted, even hated, and he has never been able to approach it with a journalist’s distance.”
Kennedy tells us what Lyon is up to these days – including some exciting new book projects – as well as gives the fascinating details of his fascinating man’s career. All of this will be of interest to Lyon fans. It will also be of extreme interest to those photographers who, um, like me, have never heard of the great Danny Lyon.
There. I said it. I admit it. I studied photojournalism, I consider myself a documentary photographer and I am familiar with every other photographer Kennedy mentions in his article. But, incredibly, Lyons had slipped through my apparently radar, which apparently is pretty faulty.
Well, maybe my stupidity can be excused (to some extent, anyway) by the very nature of the life and work of Lyons. Kennedy writes about his “stubborn vision that has probably contributed to his photographs and independent films not being better know.” Okay, so I feel a little better. But it’s still amazing that such a brilliant and influential photographer – I certainly recognize that Lyon’s work has influenced my own – would not be better know.
But then, Lyon has not been interested in being know, hiding out in New Mexico and having refused almost every that editors have practically begged him to take. Apparently Lyon has always been far more interested in championing the less fortunate (and controlling his art) than achieving fame. As Kennedy quotes Lyon:
“‘I wanted to change history and preserve humanity,’ he writes in the new book’s introduction. ‘But in the process I changed myself and preserved my own.’”
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Have you heard of Danny Lyon, and what do you think of him? Any other photographers you think are underappreciated? Let us know.