In his series Conversations with the Dead, Danny Lyon created a portrait of the daily lives of prisoners isolated from society for their crimes. Lyon, who spent 14 months taking photographs in six Texas prison units, documented what he called the “spirit of imprisonment” shared by convicts facing long-term and life sentences. Lyon’s project is more of an inquiry into the life of a prisoner than a commentary on the state of American prisons. As such, it humanizes men living in extreme circumstances and at times renders them vulnerable before his lens. The photographer’s framing of the convicts’ sinewy, sculpted bodies in juxtaposition with the guards’ derisory stares and soft, bulbous bellies inserts an element of sexual tension that further complicates the narrative.