{"id":83,"date":"2025-11-27T16:58:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marklyon.fr\/?page_id=83"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:14:57","slug":"biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marklyon.fr\/en\/biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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: Brassa\u00ef, Juliet Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sophie Calle, Sarah Moon, William Eggleston\u2026 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, he produced many photographic series internationally and published several monographs. His first book, PURE<\/em>, publi\u00e9 en 2004 retrace l\u2019adolescence de sa voisine de palier, Raina, \u00e0 New York. Le Collectionneur <\/em>une exposition r\u00e9trospective \u00e0 la Fondation Zervos \u00e0 V\u00e9zelay en 2008 est accompagn\u00e9 d\u2019un ouvrage \u00e9ponyme. A suivi Fantasma de Carne<\/em> (2012) dont les images ont \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9alis\u00e9es \u00e0 Quito, en \u00c9quateur, en dialogue avec un texte de Christine Montalbetti. Les Jardins de la Pirotterie<\/em>, publi\u00e9 en 2016, aborde l\u2019innovation architecturale dans le logement social en France et a fait l\u2019objet d\u2019une exposition \u00e0 l\u2019ENSA Nantes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>. This project of color portraits of exiles in Italy received a grant for \u201cDocumentary Photography\u201d from the CNAP (National Center for Visual Arts) in 2021 and was exhibited in 2022 at the La Mauvaise R\u00e9putation gallery in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enseignant \u00e0 Columbia University et \u00e0 l\u2019ENSAPC, c\u2019est \u00e0 partir de 2018 qu\u2019il se lancera dans la r\u00e9alisation d\u2019un portrait collectif en couleur d\u2019\u00e9tudiant.e.s de l\u2019ENSBA, intitul\u00e9 As you like it<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 R\u00eave, CAPC (Contemporary Art Center) in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a91998 Laura Brunelli\u00e8re<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Education<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1992 Masterclass Richard Avedon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1983 MFA,Yale University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1979 BA, Bennington College<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solo exhibitions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 upcoming: Aorta<\/em>, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia Letizia Battaglia, Palermo (IT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 Free Contacts<\/em>, Galerie La Mauvaise R\u00e9putation, Bordeaux (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017 Living Color<\/em>, ENSA, Nantes (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2009 Le collectionneur<\/em>, Fondation Christian & Yvonne Zervos,V\u00e9zelay (FR)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Group exhibitions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 Nouvelles saisons, autoportraits d\u2019un territoire<\/em>, Arc-en-r\u00eave, CAPC, Bordeaux (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 LIVING Modernity<\/em>: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s<\/em>, The National Art Center, Tokyo (JPN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 Nouvelle Collection 2023<\/em>, FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine MECA, Bordeaux (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 Moviment, Hommage \u00e0 la Fondation des Treilles, <\/em>Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 Le Petit Tour #1 \u2013 Rome, Le Bal, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2015 American Journey<\/em>, Galerie R\u00e9tine, Marseille (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2005 Diego\u2019s<\/em>, Air de Paris, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2005 Yale University, School of Architecture, New Haven, CT (US)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2005 Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (US) 2004 Issue Project Room, N.Y. (US)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2003 Galerie EOF, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2002 Diego\u2019s<\/em>, Air de Paris, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2000 Millenium de la Mode, Kyoto and Tokyo (JPN) 1999 Robert Mann Gallery, N.Y. (US)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1990 55 Mercer St. Gallery, N.Y. (US)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1989 Cash\/Newhouse Gallery, N.Y. (US)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Public collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne de Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 Centre National des Arts Plastiques, CNAP (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1985 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (US)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1982 Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale, Paris (FR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards, grants & residencies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 CNAP Soutien \u00e0 la photographie documentaire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2014 La Fondation des Treilles, Prix de la Photographie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2013 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, r\u00e9sidence Captiva<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2008 Graham Foundation Research Grant avec Inderbir Riar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1990 PDN\/Nikon award<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1987 Society of Publication Design award<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1986 Communication Arts award<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Richard Avedon: Darkness and light<\/em>, PBS 1994
American Masters Digital Archive,<\/em> lien vers l’interview avec Mark Lyon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Lyon est n\u00e9 en 1952 \u00e0 La Jolla en Californie et vit et travaille en France depuis vingt-cinq ans. Il m\u00e8ne un travail tr\u00e8s large autour de la photographie (portrait, architecture, paysage, art, musique, litt\u00e9rature), qui a notamment donn\u00e9 lieu \u00e0 une trentaine de s\u00e9ries, ainsi qu\u2019\u00e0 plusieurs publications et \u00e9ditions. \u00c0 la fin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-83","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBiography - Mark Lyon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marklyon.fr\/en\/biography\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biography - Mark Lyon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Lyon est n\u00e9 en 1952 \u00e0 La Jolla en Californie et vit et travaille en France depuis vingt-cinq ans. 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