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Conversation
LYON, fro m page 9
pictures. But no, you shouldn’t take a lot of
pictures. You see them in your mind’s eye,
and you make that picture.
My pictures are almost perfect, but I
work hard to do it, and I don’t take a lot of
them. I actually number the rolls of film I’ve
taken my entire life, and in 50 years I think
I’ve taken 2,000 rolls of film. I think “The
Bikeriders” was done with about 150 rolls of
film. But I’d have one great picture on every
contact sheet, or maybe two. That was
enough.
With a 35-millimeter, there are 36
exposures. So you can take 36 pictures
before you have to change the film.
I take very few pictures. I mean, I would
go work all day long; I would photograph the
prison system almost every single day for 14
months. I would go out there. I would shoot
two rolls in a day. And I would take all day to
PHO TO COURTESY ÒF D A N N Y LYON
do that. And maybe in those two rolls, I
D anny Lyon a n d his wife, Nancy Lyon, on audio, during the film in g o f "Willie.
would have one masterpiece, and that was
what I was trying to do.
communication.
Because of what I did, I was able to get
You can’t take great pictures by taking
You know we have been really raised,
into
so many other places in America. I was
lots of pictures. That’s not what photography
through Western Civilization, with verbal
able to enter prisons without being
is about
communication. With reading, reading
convicted qf a crime. I was able to join a
I think (Ben) wants me to talk about new
words. Thank God I love reading, but this is
motorcycle gang without being a right
journalism vs. Instagram, and that’s a
a visual communication, and it’s different.
winger and muscle guy and any of that stuff.
complicated and interesting discussion.
I like these emojis, I know they’re silly,
I was able to be part of the black revolution
I have four children, and three of them
but they’re like hieroglyphics. They’re visual without being a black person. I was able to
are artists, and I remember one of the boys
communication, Instead of saying the F-word spend a year with construction workers
saying, “I’m a filmmaker.” And he took out
you can find a yellow, white or black finger
without doing any work! All I did was take
his phone or his camera or whatever, and I
or
whatever.
I
think
among
my
most
favorite
pictures. I’ve had a wonderful life.
said, “Well, you didn’t edit i t ”
are women in sports and yoga positions^
You can’t just take pictures and put them
E.G.: Have you been documenting recent
because I think inside me is a pretty girl
out there - you can, but they’re of no
protests?
interest to anybody. I t’s kind of like vomiting
or diarrhea or something, It’s terrible,
because it’s visual pollution.
Instagram is interesting. I have an
account it’s new for me and someone was
doing it for me. Mine, because I don’t take
pictures much anymore, are mostly old,
mostly stuff from 50 or 30 years ago. But
then anybody who follows me, you can look
at their pictures, and it’s almost like looking
at someone else’s diary - like peeping or
looking in someone’s life who you don’t
know. I do it now and then. It is a kind of
voyeurism. I enjoy it, but it’s a visual
standing o n n e r head.
E.G.: Z have another photographer question,
and this one is from Arkady Brown, who
shoots boudoir photography; she wants to know
what photography has taught you about the
hum an experience.
D.L.: I’ve had a great human experience.
I don’t think I could have done better with
my life. I regret nothing. I’ve had a
wonderful time being alive, and the reason I
mention that is I’m old and I’m not going to
be here forever. I’m not even going to be
here for a long time.
D.L.: The last thing I did was the night
the devil was elected. I joined the
spontaneous marches in Manhattan and
filmed th a t I did the original Occupy (Wall
Street), which I loved, and I did it
passionately. I had enough money to just get
on a plane, and I was at the park where it
happened. It began in New York, but it went
on for months. I was able to fly to L.A. and
photograph that. They had just busted it up,
it was the steps of City Hall, and they were
all getting out of jail, and I loved that, and I
was able to do Occupy Oakland when it was
Street Roots • July 13-19, 2018
still going on. I loved that. But there are so
many people there, so many cell phones.
They don’t need me.
E.G.: With so many people on the scene
with cell phones, how does that change the
photography o f civil rights movements today as
opposed to the 1960s?
D.L.: I didn’t go to Ferguson, but when it
happened, I was interviewed by The Times
because the images that came out of
Ferguson were so similar to my images,
which became quite famous over time.
One of the great things for me, was I had
the Civil Rights Movement to myself for
about a year, which is just awesome, before
the photographers came down. When they
came down, I left. But it’s about history.
When I talk about the Civil Rights
Movement, it happened over 50 years ago.
That’s two full generations, and in times of
revolution, time is compressed. That means
so much happened in say five years, what
normally takes a century, that’s the nature
of revolution.
What I find amazing is that people are so
interested in what happened 50 years ago. I
think when I was a young person in the Civil
Rights Movement, white people - the
culture I came from - had no interest in
what had happened, and the media had zero
interest in what happened, 50 years earlier.
Nobody was interested.
I think in a way, America has become so
backward and so conservative for so long,
things have become so terrible, that I think
in a way it’s like water in a dishwasher that’s
turning over, or in a washing machine, and
this inspiring period is coming back big
time, and people care about it because
they’re activists now, and they realize how
drastic things are and how drastic the
measures are needed by people to overcome
them.
Most o f Lyon’s film s are viewable a t Vimeo.
com. H is blog a n d other publications,
including signed copies o f his books, can be
fo u n d a t his website, bleakbeauty.com.
emily@streetroots. org
@greenwrites