Photographer Robert Lyons is best known for his richly complex photographs of Africa and Egypt. His color series One Eye Crying focuses specifically on Easthampton, Massachusetts, a location steeped in art historical and personal significance for the artist. The light and landscape of Northeastern America has long been a source of inspiration of painters and photographers, most famously idealized by generations of painters of the Hudson School among others.
Lyons title for his ongoing series, One Eye Crying, refers to a German idiom meaning "being torn between" or "being of two minds". The title reflects a state of irresolution the artist knows well as an American who lived outside of the states for much of his career. Lyons creates beguiling pictures from his hometown that appear both familiar and exotic through his lens.
A sense of discovery resonates through the series as Lyons captures authentic moments of connection and recognition in his portraits, still lifes and landscapes. Set among overgrown vertiginous backgrounds, cloudy grey parking lots or forgotten wooded roadsides, Lyons makes pictures that inspire curiosity and longing for the stories his subjects could tell.
