Photographs by Roy DeCarava and Danny Lyon from the Sandor Family Collection

As part of a generous gift of photographs to The Ringling from Richard and Ellen Sandor, we’ve received two significant portfolios: Twelve Photogravures by Roy DeCarava (American, 1919-2009) and Danny Lyon’s (American, born 1942) Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. These bodies of work by two of America’s most consequential photographers offer distinct but complementary expressions of Black life and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.

This exhibition is curated by Christopher Jones, Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Natalia Benavides, The Ringling's Coville Photography Intern and Jevon Brown, The Ringling's Eleanor Merritt Fellow.

Top Image: Danny Lyon (American, born 1942), Cairo, IL, 1962: SNCC field secretary, later SNCC Chairman, now Congressman John Lewis, and others pray during a demonstration. from the portfolio Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement,1962-1964, printed 1996, Gelatin silver print. Gift of the Richard & Ellen Sandor Family Collection, 2023 2023.36.3