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20 of 46

Danny Lyon

(American, born 1942)

Showers, Diagnostic Unit, Texas, from the portfolio Danny Lyon

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Object Details

Artist

Danny Lyon

Date

1967-69 (negative); 1979 (print)

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 13 × 8 3/4 inches (33 × 22.2 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 11 inches (35.6 × 28 cm)
Mat: 18 × 14 inches (45.7 × 35.6 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Dr. Carl Melcher

Object
Number

83.125.001.016

In 1969, photographer Danny Lyon published Conversations with the Dead, a book documenting his fourt(…)

In 1969, photographer Danny Lyon published Conversations with the Dead, a book documenting his fourteen months of nearly unrestricted access to the Texas Department of Corrections’ various prisons, which ranged from the Diagnostic Unit—an inmate’s first stop—to Ellis, a prison reserved for the most unmanageable cases. During this time, he befriended several of the inmates; their correspondences with Lyon and prison records of their cases are also included in the book, as are drawings by one, Billy McCune. In the forward to the book, Lyon observes, “I am greatly relieved not to visit the prisons anymore. In the letters and drawings of a supposed madman, I have found someone much more eloquent than I to explain to the free world what life in prison is like.”The showering man’s tattoo is of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and of the Americas, and a popular tattoo choice among Mexican Americans. She is believed to offer protection to her bearer. (“This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection” cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – April 12, 2015)

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