Danny Lyon Quotes

Photographer

Danny Lyon is a renowned American photographer, born on March 16, 1942. His work is known for its social documentary and street photography, particularly for his photographic coverage of the Civil Rights Movement and the anti-war movement.

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All Cameras People Knows My Own Photographer Ads America Angel Artist Asks

Famous Danny Lyon Quotes

“If 'The Wild One' were filmed today, Marlon Brando and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would all have to wear helmets. I used to be afraid that when (Hells) Angels became movie stars and Cal the hero of the book, the bikerider would perish on the coffee tables of America. But now I think that this attention doesn't have the strength of reality of the people it aspires to know, and that as long as Harley-Davidsons are manufactured other bikeriders will appear, riding unknown and beautiful through Chicago, into the streets of Cicero.”

“It’s a very weird thing being a photographer.”

Photographer Weird Things

Author:Danny Lyon

“The sign at the entrance to my gym locker room says, no cell phones please, cell phones are cameras. They are not. A camera is a Nikon or a Leica or Rolleiflex, and when you strike someone with one, they know they have been hit with something substantial.”

Knows Has Beens Rooms Please Cameras Phones Strikes Cells Gym Cell Phone Entrances Lockers Locker Room Leica Nikon

Author:Danny Lyon

“I feel totally responsible for what I see. I feel totally responsible for what I photograph.”

Feels Responsible Photograph

Author:Danny Lyon

“[The people who run things] are so successful in the way they do it now. They could buy me off with a couple of vintage prints, they could have you do an ad, or give you a ribbon... In capitalist countries they reward artists because we're ineffectual.”

People Way Giving Country Running Artist Successful Couple Rewards Print Ads Capitalist Vintage Ribbons

Author:Danny Lyon

“The use of the camera has always been for me a tool of investigation, a reason to travel, to not mind my own business, and often to get into trouble.”

Mind Reason Use My Own Trouble Tools Cameras Investigation Own Business

Author:Danny Lyon

“As a child I had been so afraid of so many things, but as soon as I held a camera in my hand, I began to expose myself to the very things that were foreign to me and that I had always feared.”

Children Hands Cameras

Author:Danny Lyon

“I wanted to change history and preserve humanity. But in the process I changed myself and preserved my own.”

Wanted Humanity Process My Own Changed Preserves

Book:Memories of myself: essays

Source: Memories of myself: essays

“The pictures do not ask you to help these people, but something much more difficult; to be briefly, intensely aware of their existence, an existence as real and significant as your own.”

People Real Helping Asks Difficult Existence Significant

Book:Memories of myself: essays

Source: Memories of myself: essays

“I was a bike rider, a photographer and a history student, probably in that order. (On his early years)”

Years Order Students Photographer Bike Riders

Author:Danny Lyon

About the Author

Born: March 16, 1942
Known for: Photographer
Quotes: 10

Books & Sources

Memories of myself: essaysRelated source material

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