On view from October 10 through December 6, 2020, Testament: Danny Lyon Photographs from the 1960s presents a selection of works from two of his early series: The Movement, a series documenting the civil rights movement in the South, taken while Lyon served as staff photographer for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and Conversations with the Dead, a series of groundbreaking photographs taken over fourteen months spent documenting life inside the Texas penitentiary system.
Lyon fully immersed himself in the lives of those he photographed, becoming demonstrator, advocate, witness, and friend. From memorializing heroic struggle to acknowledging the weight of living under threat of erasure or simply being forgotten, these images reflect Lyon's devotion, his belief in photojournalism as a vehicle of change, and his enduring commitment to bear witness.
