Contents of arriving prisoner’s wallet, 1967-1969

​Danny Lyon’s photographs show no
interest in objective reporting. Rather, his practice of social justice-minded “advocacy
journalism” is opposed to the idea of journalistic neutrality and to mass-media
journalism generally. In 1967, after years of documenting the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, a civil rights organization of which he was an early
member, Lyon moved to a Texas farm to photograph the daily lives of inmates in a
nearby state prison complex. The men are young, handsome, and loved, as the image
of family pictures from one inmate’s wallet demonstrates. That is, they are
specific individuals otherwise made anonymous by the penal institution. InNew arrivals from Corpus Christi, Lyondoes not criminalize or demonize his
two subjects. Rather, he captures them in a quiet, relaxed moment, letting
viewers see the people beneath the standard-issue prison uniforms.