When I finished doing my first book, Figments in 1975
with the help of Minor White, who edited and sequenced it with me, I asked Nathan for a short introductory text. He wrote,
Silent film…pantomime…gesture…expression without sound…mime…
mimetic…McLuhan to ape ourselves becomes what if not who’s reality…
the face expressionless, the hand moves slowly and points out of the
frame—don’t smile, you may crack the looking-glass while Abe is still
inside!
In a few incisive and witty words he was able to pry open the door to the inner world of this book and launch me on the path of the photographic life quest that I have pursued since late 1970. Nathan seemed to always know and convey the next two and more levels beyond the surface, and in his own very unique photographs always make the viewer look deeper and longer, than the average picture maker. Nathan was a photographer with a deep intellect who used his eyes to see, but never without it’s connection to a many layered and complex brain.
A Nathan Lyons comes along once in a generation. He has left his mark on so many. He will be missed. All of us in the photographic family extend our condolences to Joan Lyons, his devoted wife and fellow artist, and his family, that goes way beyond blood lines.
