Steven Lyon is an enigma, hailing from Los Angeles, California. His career forged by Andy Warhol's lens on Sunset Blvd in 1982. For over three decades, Steven has engineered a creative legacy both in front and behind the camera.
Considered one of the top male models in the world throughout the 80s and 90s. The start of his career saw him as the face for designers such as Gianni Versace, Claude Montana, Jean Paul Gaultier, Cerruti and a five-year run with Trussardi. Over his fifteen-year career, he also was the face for such designers as Joseph Abboud, Bally, Lancel, Oliver Strelli, Allegri, and Façonnable. Needless to say, he was consistently a highly sought-after model for the catwalk over the entire span of his career.
In the fragrance world, Versace, Trussardi, and Monte Cristo all used his face of their coveted perfume campaigns.
He was constantly seen in the pages of L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Hommes, Harper’s Bazaar, Mondo Uomo, Esquire, and numerous GQs around the world, photographed by such iconic photographers as Paolo Roversi, Mario Testino, Francesco Scavulo, Herd Ritz, Victor Skrebneski, Giovanni Gastel, Gianpaolo Barbieri, and Guy Bourdin. In 1989 and 1991, Victor Skrebneski honored him with the controversial nude Chicago Film Festival poster.
Upon returning to Paris in 1987, he was immediately booked for the Claude Montana campaign shot by Paolo Roversi, a campaign which he was to appear in four times throughout his career. He followed that u with the Cirruti campaign also With Paolo Roversi. He continued his campaign spree for most of Europe’s top designers, making Paris his home until his retirement from modeling in 1993.
In 1998, after buying his first film camera, sold his house in L.A, and immersed himself back into the Paris fashion world- only this time on the other side of the lens, drawing his inspiration from cinema and the iconic photographers of the ‘80s, such as Helmut Newton, Peter Lindberg, and Herb Ritz. It wasn’t long before Lyon took these influences and developed his own signature style.
Since moving to Paris, he has established himself as an irreverent, borderline rebel in today’s homogenized fashion world.
Walking his own path in photography, with film as his medium of choice. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, and published in various magazines including Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, and many of the trend magazines such as 125, Soup, Spoon, S Magazine, Treats, Wolf, and the new sexy 25 Magazine.
Lyon has photographed a plethora of the world’s top models in various corners of the world, always preferring location rather than studio.
During an editorial trip to Namibia photographing supermodel Lara Stone amongst the nomad Himba tribe, he developed a love for Africa and its people.
In the years that ensued since then, Lyon has found himself on Safari throughout Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. It was on these trips that he developed his passion and appreciation for wildlife and wildlife photography.
Currently, Lyon is filming a feature documentary in Africa called Something that Matters. The documentary takes a raw, first-hand look at the ever-present crisis of poaching and corruption, which threatens extinction to the entire Rhino species: the threat is imminent. The film touches on many of the atrocities committed by man to the African wildlife, but in the end, the first of Africa’s famous “Big Five” that faces extinction is the African Rhino. Something that Matters is a celebration of their journey and fight to save a species. It is a story of hope.
Lyon embarked on a 1000 km trek on foot in Big-Five country with two South African guides for the sole purpose to raise awareness of the senseless slaughter of the African Rhino. Lyon is the first American to complete a journey like this. To complete the mission Lyon put together a skeleton film crew and the makings of a documentary was born. In 2013, Steven Lyon founded a non-profit organization called Lyonheartlove for the purpose of educating people on the horrors of poaching, and the joys of wildlife conservation. Something that Matters is the first project under the new organization.
Now living in New York, his focus is on his Lyonheart organization, filmmaking and his love for au vanguard photography.