Born in Brooklyn, New York, Danny Lyon (Born 1942) studied history at University of Chicago, where he graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He’s a photographer and filmmaker and has had one-man exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. His works are in the collections of Smithsonian Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Art, and George Eastman House. All of his publications works were in the photographic New Journalism style, this means that the he has become immersed, and is a participant, of the documented subject.
Lyon was accepted as the photographer for SNCC and was present at nearly all of the important events during the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Lyon received a Guggenheim Fellowship twice; Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism; a Rockefeller Fellowship, and a Lucie Award. Later, he began creating his own books. The first publication was “The Bikeriders”, a study of outlaw motorcyclists in the collection of 1968. In this collection, the artist did more than just photograph motorcyclists, he also became one of the members of the Chicago Outlaws motorcycle club and accompanied them in their travels to American Midwest from 1963 to 1967. Additionally, he shared their lifestyle. By 1967 he was invited to join Magnum Photos but he never became a full member. Lyon also contributed to the DOCUMERICA project by the Environmental Protection Agency.
