Danny Lyon: Pictures from the New World, Signed Book and Print

Danny Lyon: Pictures from the New World

Deluxe Limited Edition, Artists Proof, 1981

Signed by Danny Lyon

Includes Framed Signed Silver Gelatin Print “Ellis Unit, 1968”

FINE Condition

This is a signed deluxe limited edition of Danny Lyon’s photobook “Pictures from the New World” published by Aperture, New York in 1981. There were 400 signed, numbered copies issued that included a signed silver gelatin print with this being an “artist proof” copy that is unnumbered. Danny Lyon has produced several of the most iconic photobooks ever published including “The Bikeriders”, “Conversations with the Dead”, and “The Destruction of Lower Manhattan”. “Pictures from the New World” is his photographic autobiography and covers Lyon's work from these words as well as his early photographs of civil-rights demonstrations in 1967 and the New Mexico landscape. From his text in the book, “"I never intended to be a photographer. I never intended to be anything. In 1962 I was a history student at the University of Chicago. While hitchhiking in the West I took a picture of a truck in the desert and entered it in the Festival of the Arts Exhibit at the University. Hugh Edwards, curator of prints and drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago and one of the judges, gave my picture a prize. He said he liked big trucks. Aaron Siskind was also a judge, and I was told that he said he preferred pregnant women as a subject. Thus early in life the world was divided for me. Photography then seemed new and exciting, and all America, which I regarded with mystery and reverence, lay before me.Eighteen years have now passed. In order to make this book I have had to face directly everything I have done in photography from that day to this. Now, I give it back to you, America, from whom I took it all in the first place. The slate is clean, and I am free to begin again."

Containing 160 photographs (148 black-and-white and 12 color) and measuring 9.25” x 11.75”, the book is bound in cloth covered boards with a matching slipcase and has been signed by Danny Lyon on the limitation page. The original silver gelatin print is entitled, “Ellis Unit, 1968” and is signed by Danny Lyon on the verso. This print was featured in Danny Lyon’s critically acclaimed photobook, “Conversations with the Dead” that documented Texas prison life. The print measures 7.5” x 11” and is custom matted and framed. The frame dimensions are 14.5” x 17”. The book and slipcase are in FINE condition with the most minimal of fading to the slipcase. The signed print is in FINE condition with the frame showing some minor wear.

A composite photograph of the book, slipcase, and framed print, the signature page in the book, the print in the mat as well as several individual photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by running your mouse over the thumbnail. You can also click on the thumbnail to open a separate window where the picture is viewable as a slide show.