Daniel Jack Lyons: Trust the Wind

The Earth's lungs are in peril. With Brazil under the control of Jair Bolsonaro and his right-wing regime, illegal mining and agricultural expansion in the Amazon have recently contributed to catastrophic fires. While some image-makers captured dramatic aerial views of the spectacle of smoke and fire, Daniel Jack Lyons, a Los Angeles-based photographer who has spent much of his career focusing on the lives of youth subcultures-often in marginalized communities-was drawn to the largely unseen lives of young Indigenous people in the region. A Portuguese speaker and trained anthropologist who had previously worked in Brazil, Lyons teamed up with a local community organizer based in a remote location in the Amazon and set out on a series of intimate portraits, realized in his characteristic soft, earthy palette. His photographs offer an individualized take on Indigenous communities in the region: his subjects are drag queens, queer people, skateboarders, teenage lovers, heavy-metal fans, and farmers. "I wanted to document the banality of everyday life and the rebellious creativity it inspires," Lyons says. "This universal impulse to express and affirm one's individuality is resilient but at risk from a toxic mix of environmental degradation, violence, and discrimination. As another generation passes through the quotidian rites and rituals of adolescence, what sort of world will they inhabit and how much autonomy will they have over it?" The book will include an introduction by model and environmental activist Gisele Bundchen, with other contributions from environmental scientists such as Antonio Nobre.

About the Author :
Daniel Jack Lyons' background as a social anthropologist is very much at the heart of his practice as a photographer. His work, whether personal or commissioned, focuses largely on marginalized youth, whether occupying spaces on the periphery of society or in the face of conflict. And the collaborative methods he employs grants these subjects a greater sense of autonomy in guiding each project's message, infusing Lyon's work with a deeper creative spirit that of- ten illuminates universal experiences that audiences may not have considered. Creating this work has taken him to Mozambique, Ukraine, New York State, Amazonia and Los Angeles. In each case, Lyons documents particular expressions of joy, optimism and concern that tap into the general insouciance and naiveté of 'coming of age'. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, More or Less and Vogue Italia. The series 'Hotel Luso' was also included in the New Artists II exhibition at Red Hook Labs in 2018. His body of work Amazonica received the runner up to the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2020 and was exhibited in Milan as part of the Photo Vogue exhibition hosted by Vogue Italia this year.