Two inmates, Goree Unit, Texas

Label

Two Black women wearing food-service uniforms are sitting in a dining room. The women pose in a traditional portrait style used for ladies of high status. This contrasts with the title, which tells us that these two women are inmates in a segregated Texas prison. Danny Lyon’s photographic practice during the 1960s frequently documented racial and class conflicts in the United States. He was a documentary photographer who believed in spending time with his subjects and embedding himself in the communities he photographed. Here, the women’s bearing contrasts sharply with the deprivations of their imprisonment.

From the 2026 exhibition Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, curated by Amelia Kahl (Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programming) and Alisa Swindell (Associate Curator of Photography)

Exhibition History

Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives, Jaffe and Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 20, 2025 - July 11, 2026.

Provenance

Collection of Michael Mattis, Scarsdale, New York; sold to Harley and Stephen C. Osman, Stamford, Connecticut, date unknown; given to present collection, 2019.

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Subjects