Hidden America: Danny Lyon's photography – in pictures

Llanito, New Mexico (1970)
Lyon's aim has always been to present an alternative vision of America through his photography. He has long railed against Life magazine, the colossus of photojournalism when he was coming of age. He says: 'I was against it and I knew in my heart of hearts there was a better way to take photographs of people and the world' Photograph: Magnum Photos, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery

SNCC workers outside funeral (1963)
In 1962, at the age of just 20, Lyon joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Alabama to rally against segregation. He photographed the civil rights movement for two years. Images like these show the beginnings of his signature composition style – formal but always intimate Photograph: Courtesy Dektol.wordpress.com, Magnum Photos, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery

Clarksdale, Mississippi Police (1963)
Another of Lyon's civil rights movement era images. Here, police pose (and crotch-grab) for Lyon's camera as the National Council of Churches (NCC) march on a local church in Clarksdale to fight for an end to segregation Photograph: The Menil Collection

Crossing the Ohio, Louisville (1966)
Lyon left the civil rights movement in 1964 to join the Chicago Outlaws biker club. This is one of the most iconic images from Lyon's series The Bikeriders, which rivals Hollywood's most notorious images of James Dean or Marlon Brando in embodying the same spirit of youthful freedom and rebellion Photograph: Danny Lyon

Shakedown, Ramsey Unit
After moving on from the Chicago Outlaws bikers, Lyon turned to the Texas prison system for his next project. This intimate inside take on both prisoners and guards culminated in the 1971 collection Conversations with the Dead Photograph: Courtesy Dektol.wordpress.com, Magnum Photos, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery

Walls Unit Yard (Raymond Jackson, Robbery)
Another image from Conversations with the Dead, in which prisoner Raymond Jackson is shown weightlifting in the yard of the notorious Walls Unit prison in Texas Photograph: Magnum Photos, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery

For Johnny Sanchez (1986)
More recently, Lyon has begun making photographic montages (such as this collage of gravestones) that poetically bring up issues of memory, society or family Photograph: Danny Lyon/Magnum

Rachel in Texas (Robert Frank, Wavy Gravy, Paula Cooper, Danny Seymour), 1969
Another of Lyon's montage works of vintage photographs Photograph: Magnum Photos, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery