Bio
Darryn Lyons started his career at 17 as a local photographer in Australia, moving quickly from the Geelong News on to the bigger Geelong Advertiser.
He rose through the ranks and became the first ever local photographer to pick up the prestigious “Best Cadet” in the national Press awards.
In 1987, at the age of 22, he arrived in London with $500 and a determination to take on and beat the world’s best - “if you can dream it, you can do it”. Initially he began freelancing for the Daily Mail. He covered two or three shifts a day and was soon taken on full-time.
Between 1991 and 92 he completed two tours of Sarajevo as a war correspondent. Over the following couple of years he was kidnapped in Bosnia, covered revolutions in both Romania - he was one of the first in to brave the sniper fire in Timisoara - and Czechoslovakia. He also covered the momentous fall of the Berlin Wall and, uniquely, won the Award for best Press Photographer and best News Photographer.
While still at the Daily Mail, he set up his first business, Big Pictures, in 1992. Lyons began employing people whilst still fulfilling his obligations at the Mail; the business was run from a one bedroom flat in Muswell Hill.
Once Lyons went full time at Big, turnover was rapid and he began to expand his business; Big Pictures, Inc opened in New York in 1995, Big Pictures Scotland opened in Edinburgh in 2002 and there are more in the pipeline.
While at the Mail, Lyons spotted a niche in celebrity photography - the emergence of the cult of celebrity. Once he had identified the niche, Lyons believes that Big Pictures was instrumental in starting a trend. “Look at Heat, look at Now, Closer, Hot Stars, Sneak”, he says, “We built these magazines.”
Lyons rapidly turned Big Pictures from a boutique supplier to an emerging market into a wholesale supplier of celebrity images and moved into the mainstream.
His initial strategy was simple, “work bloody hard”. Yet behind this basic credo lay the business facts, Lyons knew that he had tapped into an unexploited market with room for creativity and, more importantly, generous profit margins.
Big Pictures has come a long way in a short time and Lyons is seeking to further consolidate the picture agency’s position by pushing through acquisitions that will "decimate the competition".
His aim is simple, to be the biggest and the best in the world. As he says himself, “I like thinking and, if you're going to be thinking, you may as well think Big!