Danny Lyon (born 1942), is a self-taught American photographer and filmmaker. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he is also credited as an accomplished writer to accompany his photographs. He studied history at the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963
Brooklyn native Danny Lyon received a BA in history in 1963 from the University of Chicago, where he served as staff photographer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
A self-taught photographer, he traveled with the Chicago Outlaws motorcycle club in 1965-1966 and published his pictures of the club members as The Bikeriders (1968). Since 1967 he has been an independent photographer and an associate at Magnum, and he has made films since 1969. Lyon has received Guggenheim Fellowships in photography and filmmaking, and his work has been included in many major exhibitions, including Toward a Social Landscape at the George Eastman House. His first solo exhibition was held at the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to The Bikeriders, Lyon has published a number of photographic books based upon his experiences with a group of people or in a particular place, among them The Movement (1964), about the Civil Rights movement, and Conversations with the Dead (1971), a study of life in Texas prisons. Among the films he has produced are Social Services 127, Los Niños Abandonados, and Little Boy.
Danny Lyon received the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for photography in 1969, and in film making in 1979. He has had solo exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. He is the founding member of the photography group Bleak Beauty. He was greatly encouraged in his documentary work by curator Hugh Edwards.
