# Danny Lyon artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/danny-lyon/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T04:47:11.399Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1942-03-16
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Documentary photography, New Photojournalism
- Common media: Photography (gelatin silver prints), Film and motion pictures

## About Danny Lyon

Danny Lyon (born 1942, Brooklyn, New York) is an American photographer and filmmaker whose work is central to the tradition of socially engaged documentary photography. After earning a BA in history from the University of Chicago in 1963, Lyon served as staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), producing some of the most recognized imagery of the American civil rights movement. He went on to immerse himself in the communities he photographed, including the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club, documented in his landmark book The Bikeriders (1968), and Texas prison inmates, the subject of Conversations with the Dead (1971). Lyon's approach—participatory, long-form, and deeply empathetic—placed him alongside the leading figures of New Photojournalism. He has also produced several films and continues to maintain an active studio practice from his farm in upstate New York.

## Common works and media

Lyon's most commonly encountered works in auction and appraisal contexts are gelatin silver prints, often from his major photobook series. These include motorcyclist portraits from The Bikeriders (1968), civil rights demonstrations and SNCC organizing scenes from the early 1960s, and prison interiors from Conversations with the Dead (1971). Later bodies of work such as Pictures from the New World (1981) and photographs from his time in Colombia, Haiti, and China also appear. Prints may be found as individual silver gelatin photographs, signed exhibition prints, or as part of published portfolios and books. Lyon has also produced a number of films available through his Bleak Beauty imprint.

## Market and appraisal context

Danny Lyon's photographs appear regularly at major auction houses and in institutional collections worldwide. Vintage gelatin silver prints from his signature series—especially SNCC civil rights work, The Bikeriders, and Conversations with the Dead—tend to attract the strongest collector interest. Appraisal value depends on print date (vintage vs. later), edition and portfolio context, provenance, condition, signature, and the specific series or period represented. Civil rights-era photographs carry additional institutional and cultural significance. Collectors should verify printing date and edition status carefully, as reprints and later portfolios circulate alongside vintage material.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine independently researched artist identity data from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with public auction records, auction-house cataloguing, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot results when those records are available. For Danny Lyon, identity and biographical data are grounded in the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and the artist's own published work and official site.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81146996
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/378717
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5220576
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/100892884/
- Danny Lyon: http://www.bleakbeauty.com