Mark Lyon

Mark Lyon was born a twin in 1952 in La Jolla, California. He has lived and worked in France for the past twenty-five years. For over three decades, he has pursued a wide-ranging body of work in photography (portraiture, architecture, landscape, art, music, literature), resulting in some thirty series, and multiple publications.

In the late 1950s, his parents moved to Connecticut, near New York City. He continued his studies there until the age of sixteen, at which point his school allowed him a year off to "escape" to France. His father entrusted him with his Rolleiflex. With this twin lens camera, he set off to discover the world. In 1970, once back in the United States, he studied literature and photography at Bennington College, Vermont. He developed a passion for the literary and artistic avant-garde (Marcel Proust, the Surrealists, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus).

After university, he returned to Paris in 1979, where he worked as co-director of Zabriskie Gallery. For him, this was a period of decisive encounters: Brassaï, Juliet Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sophie Calle, Sarah Moon, William Eggleston… Following this hands-on experience in the art world, he decided to pursue a master's degree in photography at Yale, under the tutelage of photographer Tod Papageorge and art historian Rosalind Krauss. A masterclass with photographer Richard Avedon in the 1990s undoubtedly marked the culmination of his artistic apprenticeship. Avedon encouraged him to seamlessly connect his various personal projects, editorial work, and private commissions. He introduced him to photographer Bob Richardson, with whom Mark would forge a lasting friendship and collaborate on two books projects. Encouraged by Richardson, he returned to Europe in 1997 and decided to settle in France.

Since then, he produced many photographic series internationally and published several monographs. His first book, PURE, publié en 2004 retrace l’adolescence de sa voisine de palier, Raina, à New York. Le Collectionneur une exposition rétrospective à la Fondation Zervos à Vézelay en 2008 est accompagné d’un ouvrage éponyme. A suivi Fantasma de Carne (2012) dont les images ont été réalisées à Quito, en Équateur, en dialogue avec un texte de Christine Montalbetti. Les Jardins de la Pirotterie, publié en 2016, aborde l’innovation architecturale dans le logement social en France et a fait l’objet d’une exposition à l’ENSA Nantes.

Winner of the Fondation des Treilles Photography Prize in 2013, Mark Lyon explored the current migratory issues of the Mediterranean basin, a subject he revisited in 2017 to initiate FREE CONTACTS. This project of color portraits of exiles in Italy received a grant for “Documentary Photography” from the CNAP (National Center for Visual Arts) in 2021 and was exhibited in 2022 at the La Mauvaise Réputation gallery in Bordeaux.

Enseignant à Columbia University et à l’ENSAPC, c’est à partir de 2018 qu’il se lancera dans la réalisation d’un portrait collectif en couleur d’étudiant.e.s de l’ENSBA, intitulé As you like it.  

More recently, his desire to explore the beliefs of young people led him to conceive "What do you believe in?", a work combining portraits and recorded interviews, presented as a diaporama in 2025 at Arc en Rêve, CAPC (Contemporary Art Center) in Bordeaux.

Education

1992 Masterclass Richard Avedon

1983 MFA,Yale University

1979 BA, Bennington College

Solo exhibitions

2026 upcoming: Aorta, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia Letizia Battaglia, Palermo (IT)

2022 Free Contacts, Galerie La Mauvaise Réputation, Bordeaux (FR)

2017 Living Color, ENSA, Nantes (FR)

2009 Le collectionneur, Fondation Christian & Yvonne Zervos,Vézelay (FR)

Group exhibitions

2025 Nouvelles saisons, autoportraits d’un territoire, Arc-en-rêve, CAPC, Bordeaux (FR)

2025 LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s, The National Art Center, Tokyo (JPN)

2024 Nouvelle Collection 2023, FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine MECA, Bordeaux (FR)

2023 Moviment, Hommage à la Fondation des Treilles, Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR)

2016 Le Petit Tour #1 – Rome, Le Bal, Paris (FR)

2015 American Journey, Galerie Rétine, Marseille (FR)

2005 Diego’s, Air de Paris, Paris (FR)

2005 Yale University, School of Architecture, New Haven, CT (US)

2005 Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (US) 2004 Issue Project Room, N.Y. (US)

2003 Galerie EOF, Paris (FR)

2002 Diego’s, Air de Paris, Paris (FR)

2000 Millenium de la Mode, Kyoto and Tokyo (JPN) 1999 Robert Mann Gallery, N.Y. (US)

1990 55 Mercer St. Gallery, N.Y. (US)

1989 Cash/Newhouse Gallery, N.Y. (US)

Public collections

2024 Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (FR)

2023 FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine (FR)

2022 Centre National des Arts Plastiques, CNAP (FR)

1985 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (US)

1982 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (FR)

Awards, grants & residencies

2021 CNAP Soutien à la photographie documentaire

2014 La Fondation des Treilles, Prix de la Photographie

2013 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, résidence Captiva

2008 Graham Foundation Research Grant avec Inderbir Riar

1990 PDN/Nikon award

1987 Society of Publication Design award

1986 Communication Arts award