Nathan Lyons (January 10, 1930 – August 31, 2016) was an American photographer, curator, and educator. He exhibited his photographs from 1956 onwards, produced books of his own and edited those of others.
Lyons was also a curator of photography and an associate director at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York and, in 1969, founded the independent Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, which established a course of study relating to the history and practice of the photographic art form and curatorial studies specifically pertaining to the medium of photography. He started the Society for Photographic Education, becoming its first chairman. He was involved with various magazines, being assistant editor of Image, regional editor of Aperture, and founder of Afterimage.
In 2000 Lyons received the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement in photography. He died on 31 August 2016, aged 86.
Education and military service
In 1945 Lyons became interested in photography after viewing a darkroom demonstration and he began to photograph with a plastic Falcon camera while working in his family's glass and mirror business. In 1947 he received a camera as a graduation gift and between 1947 and 1948 he photographed around Times Square, New York and assisted various photographers. From 1948 to 1950 Lyons enrolled at Technical College at Alfred, Alfred, New York where he studied business and marketing. In 1950 he enlisted in the United States Air Force as a photographer and reported to Grenier Air Force Base in Manchester, New Hampshire. Between 1951 and 1953 he served as senior photographer in a photo intelligence unit in Kimpo, Korea.
In 1953 Lyons returned to the United States and worked for the Air Force as a staff news writer and public relations photographer in Marietta, Georgia. In 1954 following honorable discharge from the Air Force he returned to Alfred University where he majored in English literature and minored in theatre. He also studied photography and exhibition design with the artist John Wood who became his primary mentor and an influential force behind Lyons's creative practice.
Curatorial work
After graduating in 1957, Lyons began working for the George Eastman House as the director of public information and assistant editor of Image magazine. In 1960 he was appointed assistant director and began a series of exhibitions on the work of young contemporary photographers. At this time he was also named the regional editor of Aperture magazine.
In 1961 Lyons curated the exhibition "Seven Contemporary Photographers" that included the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Ray K. Metzker. Lyons gave Lee Friedlander his first solo exhibition in 1963. Lyons's curatorial aim was to promote the notion of a photographer's distinct "point of view" and individual creative motivations. Additionally, Lyons validated and defined the "snapshot aesthetic" in his exhibition "Toward a Social Landscape" in 1966 that included the work of Bruce Davidson, Lee Friedlander, Danny Lyon, Duane Michals and Garry Winogrand and further explored the aesthetic in his lecture "Photography and the Picture Experience" regarding the snapshot as "authentic picture form." Lyons also organized the exhibitions The Persistence of Vision,, 1967, Photography in the Twentieth Century, 1967, and Vision and Expression, 1969 at George Eastman House.
In 1962, "recognizing the growing importance of photography at museums and university art departments, he organized a conference for curators and teachers that evolved into the Society for Photographic Education. The Society for Photographic Education is a nonprofit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight. In 1969 Lyons resigned from George Eastman House and founded Visual Studies Workshop. Three years later he founded Afterimage, a play on Image magazine published by George Eastman House. In 1983 he organized Oracle, an annual meeting of curators and directors of photographic institutions. He was a founding trustee of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and served as chair from 1976 to 1993.
In 2008 he organized the retrospective exhibition John Wood: On the Edge of Clear Meaning, held at the International Center of Photography.