With Danny Lyon.

Hitting Left

Mike's guest on this edition of Hitting Left is author, photojournalist and filmmaker, Danny Lyon, whose camera captured the history of SNCC and the 60’s Civil Rights Movement.

Danny, who was born in 1942 in New York, is one of the most influential documentary photographers of his generation. While still a student at the University of Chicago, he was imprisoned in the South and became the first photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). His photographs formed the core of the book "The Movement."

Gloria Richardson, Stokely Carmichael, and Cleve Sellers in custody in Cambridge, Maryland, 1964. (Danny Lyon pic)

Upon returning to Chicago in 1965, he joined the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club. The two years he spent with the club resulted in the publication of a groundbreaking book, "The Bikeriders" which inspired a new film.

In 1967, Lyon gained access to the Texas prison system and produced the series "Conversations with the Dead."

Danny’s new book is This Is My Life I’m Talking About.