Daniel Jack Lyons: Trust the Wind

The EarthÆs lungs are in peril. With Brazil under the control of Jair Bolsonaro and his right-wing regime, illegal mining and agricultural expansion in the Amazon have recently contributed to catastrophic fires. While some image-makers captured dramatic aerial views of the spectacle of smoke and fire, Daniel Jack Lyons, a Los Angelesûbased photographer who has spent much of his career focusing on the lives of youth subculturesùoften in marginalized communitiesùwas drawn to the largely unseen lives of young Indigenous people in the region.

A Portuguese speaker and trained anthropologist who had previously worked in Brazil, Lyons teamed up with a local community organizer based in a remote location in the Amazon and set out on a series of intimate portraits, realized in his characteristic soft, earthy palette. His photographs offer an individualized take on Indigenous communities in the region: his subjects are drag queens, queer people, skateboarders, teenage lovers, heavy-metal fans, and farmers. ôI w