{"data":{"id":"4287","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4287,"topgoose_id":1726,"tms_id":4287,"display_name":"Danny Lyon","sort_name":"Lyon Danny","display_date":"1942–","begin_date":"1942","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eThe son of European émigrés, self- taught photographer Danny Lyon traveled south to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Selma, Alabama, in 1962. Working with the civil rights organization for two years, he became its first staff photographer and documented its activities, including sit-ins and marches, as they campaigned across the South for racial equality. In images that combine the unflinching realism of street photographers such as \u003ca href=\"/artists/3897\"\u003eRobert Frank\u003c/a\u003e with the intertwining of reporter and participant that marked New Journalism, Lyon helped publicize the group’s efforts and, in the process, produced a visual record of a crucial period in the history of the civil rights movement.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/9482\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwo SNCC Workers, Selma\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e (which was published in a 1964 documentary book about the movement) pictures a pair of SNCC workers encouraging voter registration, which had been made difficult for African Americans in the South by obstacles such as literacy tests and administrative delays. The imperatives of the men’s signs, the visual rhythm created by their matching stances, and the striking tonal contrasts in the image make for a dramatic composition. Indeed, the moment Lyon captured was a tense one: soon after this shot was taken, the workers were arrested—an incident that Lyon also caught on camera.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter leaving SNCC in 1964, Lyon\nshifted his focus to documenting Chicago\nmotorcycle gangs; subsequent projects\nhave taken as their subject the Texas\nprison system, industrial workers in China,\nand the Occupy Wall Street movement.\nLyon’s photographs, often published\nas books, stand beside his notable work\nas a writer and a filmmaker.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500055341","wikidata_id":"Q5220576","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:36:32.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:00:58.342-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4287/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4287/exhibitions"}}}}