A self-taught photographer, Danny Lyon, is one of the most original and influential documentary photographers of our time, who began his career as the first staff photographer, for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in the early 1960s. Throughout the intervening decades, Lyon, a pioneer of New Journalism, has continually blurred the boundaries between observer and participant, continually immersing himself unconditionally into the lives of his subjects. This level of commitment to his chosen subject, has seen Lyon being arrested and jailed in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, along with other anti- segregation protestors, including Martin Luther King Jr. who occupied the adjacent cell, whilst his first book, Bikeriders, saw him spend 2 years as a member of the Outlaws, an American motorcycle gang. Whilst many photographers of Lyon’s generation, aspired to have their work published, in what was then the holy grail of picture magazines, Life, Lyon has never been prepared to compromise, either his vision or integrity to consider accepting an assignment from such a publication, preferring instead to work on self-assigned essays, like the aforementioned Bikeriders, a seminal piece of New Journalism, that would later be described by Lyon, as an attempt “to destroy Life magazine.” Lyon’s single-minded approach has meant that many of his essays have remained largely unpublished. With the publication of Memories of Myself, we have the opportunity to see a substantial collection of these essays – Tesca, Uptown, Bikeriders, Knoxville, Galveston, A Conversation with Hugh Edwards, The Pitts, Haiti, Let them Kill Themselves and Trading with the Enemy – all of which appear as complete pieces for the very first time, each with an accompanying and highly insightful text written by Lyon with his own distinctive voice. (http://silentbeings.tumblr.com/page/269) undefined

More on Google