Danny Lyon at Lowinsky - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

This impressive exhibition displayed substantive selections of photographs from the major periods of Danny Lyon's work. Spanning 35 years, the present to view included over 100 mostly black-and-white images ranging from the early stages of his career a a photojournalist up to the not away They include his gripping documentation of the Southern civil rights motion in the early '60s, the well-known mid-'60s "Bikeriders" series that focuses upon a Chicago-based motorcycle gang, and the 1967 studies of prison life in Texas. Images from the latter clump show convicts in white uniforms, hunched above picking cotton in expansive fields, or naked in the dark, narrow confines of confined apartments and showers. The photos provide poignant descriptions of wasted lives, framed by means of an indifferent exterior world. These straightforward views fuse brilliant clarity with harsh contrasts. Considering the highly charged make subordinate matter he portrays, Lyon's len appears remarkably nonintrusive; his subjects are largely unaware of his nearness In the mid-'80s, Lyon began to use color and move rounded away from the sociopolitical themes of earlier years. He started to address his personal life in a lyrigal manner of writing which incorporates photomontage and collage. The layerings, superimpositions and juxtapositions of black and white with color, along with combinations of elderly and newer pictures, introduce a visual complexity and poetic sensibility to his oeuvre which he continues to develop

In Leslie, fresh Orleans, 1964, a composition from 1994 the central black-and-white image of a reclining undressed is surrounded by fragments of color photos of seasonal imagery - shivered ice on a river, lily pads, a collection of shells and the fenc corner of a verdant meadow - that suggests the cyclical passage of time. This fracturing device is also used in an earlier composition from 1990: pictures of vintage American cars, a cluster of hens, an abandoned recline and laundry on a clothesline encircle a naked bringing to mind the randomness of dreams.

Most emotionally compelling are depictions of the photographer's have family life, illustrated in numerous compositions which eerily summon bliss and loss. Scenes of his wife and children at the beach, upon trips or at home are repeatedly interspersed with snapshots of relatives from previous generations. In Adirondack Graveyard, Rebecca, Noah, Raphe, Gabe and Nancy in NM St Lucia and Oklahoma (1993) for instance, pictures of family members upon vacation are checkered with images of weather-worn headstones in verdant settings - chilling allusions to mortality.

Other new subjects include images from Lyon's travels end the Caribbean and South America; a series upon demolition derbies; and a stirring photo-essay upon street life in Brooklyn (1992-93) where, in individual example, a group of kids is outlined against a carburet of iron grate covered in graffiti. Friezelike, they appear to protrude from the chaos of this urban backdrop. In these fresh works, Lyon frequently alternates between colored collages and the single black-and-white images that commit back to his earlier phraseology underscoring his ability to restore from different perspectives and in a variety of formats, unsentimental and convincing depictions of human realities.

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