Although Danny Lyon, 74,grew up in a middle-class section of Queens, he has always focused his camera on those who live on the margins of society. In the 1960s—after graduating from the University of Chicago alongside classmate Bernie Sanders—Lyons chronicled the violent civil rights protests in the South. He also did photographic studies of motorcycle gang members, inmates in Texas penitentiaries and, more recently, participants of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A Whitney Museum exhibition last summer, “Danny Lyon: Message to the Future,” presented 175 of Lyon’s photographs as well as three of his rarely-seen documentary films. Here are some of PROVOKR’s favorite photographs from the collection.
