Conversations With the Dead

by Danny Lyon

Ground breaking 1960s documentary photographs of prison life in Texas. Includes drawings and text from prisoner Billy McCune. Some rubbing and fading to front cover. Interior and photographs clean and unmarked.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of photographs of the insides of Texas prisons in the late '60s. Somehow, Danny Lyon got permission to take pictures inside all of the state prisons in Texas--the photographss are quite good and sometimes moving. He also formed a friendship with one of the inmates, Billy McCune. Billy was a loser--he came from a broken home, was kicked out of the navy (it sounds like an accumulation of petty offenses), and was convicted of raping a women in Waco. He had been kept in a home for the retarded and was held in the psychotic section of the highest security prison. Along the way, he cut off his penis. Nevertheless, his writing is incredibly good, and his drawings are okay. The whole story is so sad.

For example it takes him literally years to get permission to get the art supplies for his drawing. They give him part of a table in the leather working room for his drawings.

Danny Lyon graduated from the University of Chicago, and I found out about him in one of the alumni magazines. I occasionally will pick up a book of photographs, and have started to include these in my Goodreads lists.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is a masterpiece, stands alongside The Americans by Robert Frank

[kerrycat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes me wonder whatever happened to these boys and men - some of them were so very young. Stunning photos - just stunning.