Arrested for demonstrating in Americus, Georgia, teenage girls are kept in a stockade in the countryside near Leesburg. Some had been in the stockade for a few days, others had been there for three weeks. They have no beds and no working sanitary facilities. I make pictures through the broken glass of the barred windows
Artist:
Danny Lyon
(American, born 1942)
General region:North and Central America
Topographic representation:Georgia, United States
Date: 1963, printed 2015
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Ernest Pomerantz and Marie Brenner
Object number: 2016.26.135
Portfolio: Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement
Signed: Signed and dated in pencil, verso
Markings: Bleak Beauty stamp on verso
Copyright: © Danny Lyon / Magnum Photos
Label Text
I feel totally responsible for what I see. I feel totally responsible for what I photograph.
—Danny Lyon
Building on Walker Evans’s documentary approach to distill the essence of American life from simple and ordinary scenes, Danny Lyon has forged a new style of photojournalism and documentary photography—immersive, participatory, and from the inside out. For five decades, his uncompromising approach to his subject matter—from Civil Rights (Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement) to a Chicago motorcycle club (The Bikeriders), to inmates in a Texas prison (Conversations with the Dead), to the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and more recently, the Occupy Movement—has been motivated by his compassion for the struggles of humanity and a deep commitment to his artistic vision. Each project has been accompanied by a beautifully edited book, which in layout, design, and sequencing advanced the importance of the photo-book as an art object itself. Lyon has also made collages and produced a significant body of films.
(Suzanne Weaver, 2019)
—Danny Lyon
Building on Walker Evans’s documentary approach to distill the essence of American life from simple and ordinary scenes, Danny Lyon has forged a new style of photojournalism and documentary photography—immersive, participatory, and from the inside out. For five decades, his uncompromising approach to his subject matter—from Civil Rights (Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement) to a Chicago motorcycle club (The Bikeriders), to inmates in a Texas prison (Conversations with the Dead), to the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and more recently, the Occupy Movement—has been motivated by his compassion for the struggles of humanity and a deep commitment to his artistic vision. Each project has been accompanied by a beautifully edited book, which in layout, design, and sequencing advanced the importance of the photo-book as an art object itself. Lyon has also made collages and produced a significant body of films.
(Suzanne Weaver, 2019)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
