Nathan Lyons

photographer · author

American^[2] b. 10 January 1930^[1,2] d. 31 August 2016^[1,2] active from 1950

Nathan Lyons (1930-2016) was an American photographer, curator, writer and educator. He served as a U.S. Air Force photographer from about 1950 to 1954 and studied at Alfred University, where he worked with photographer John Wood. In 1957 he joined the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, as director of public information and assistant editor of Image magazine, and was named assistant director in 1960. He was also regional editor of Aperture magazine. In 1969 he founded the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, which he directed for 32 years and which became a major centre for photographic education and curatorial study. In 1972 he founded Afterimage magazine. He chaired the New York Foundation for the Arts from 1976 to 1993. Notations in Passing (MIT Press, 1974) presents a large selection of his photographs of posters, advertisements, shop windows and billboards, arranged in sequences that articulate his ideas about image sequencing and book structure. His later books include Riding 1st Class on the Titanic! (1999) and After 9/11 (2003). He died in August 2016 at age 86.^[1,2]

• photographic education
• photobook sequence and structure
• found urban imagery and commercial signage
• photographic curation and institutions