Ferguson Prison Farm

© Danny Lyon / Magnum Photos

Ferguson Prison Farm

Currently not on view

Ferguson Prison Farm,

1968

Danny Lyon, born 1942, Brooklyn, NY; active New York, NY
x1975-69
In 1967 nineteen-year-old Brooklyn-born photographer Danny Lyon was granted permission by the Texas Department of Corrections to document over the course of more than a year the lives of incarcerated men in six of the state’s penitentiaries. The resulting series offers a glimpse into the racialized power structures and personalities that characterize the prisonindustrial complex. In this photograph, white guards on horseback oversee incarcerated black men working in a field, underlining the historical relationship between the institution of slavery and the American prison system.

Information

Title
Ferguson Prison Farm
Dates

1968

Maker
Danny Lyon
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 22 x 32.8 cm. (8 11/16 x 12 15/16 in.) sheet: 27.8 x 35.2 cm. (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, with an anonymous matching gift
Object Number
x1975-69
Place Made

North America, United States, Texas, Midway, Ferguson Unit

Inscription
Signed, dated, and titled in graphite, verso lower right: Danny Lyon 1968 Ferguson Prison Unit, Midway, Texas Inscribed in graphite, verso: 611-32
Culture
American
Type
gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs, photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
uniforms, prisoners, men, prisons

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