Santiago Lyon

The Associated Press
vice President and Director of Photography

Santiago Lyon, USA, is vice president and director of photography of The Associated Press, responsible for the AP’s global photo report and the hundreds of photographers and photo editors worldwide who produce it. He has 26 years of experience in news-service photography and has won multiple photojournalism awards for his coverage of conflicts around the globe, including prizes in both the 1998 and 1999 World Press Photo contests. He joined the AP in 1991, after working for United Press International and Reuters. Lyon served as AP photo editor for Spain and Portugal from 1995 until 2003, when he was named director of photography. In the same year, he accepted a Nieman Fellowship in journalism at Harvard University.

In 2005, under Lyon’s direction, the AP earned its 29th Pulitzer Prize for photography, for work on the war in Iraq by a team of 11 photographers, five of them Iraqis. In 2007, the AP won its 30th Pulitzer Prize for photography, for a single image made by Oded Balilty. Lyon also serves as a nominator for the Joop Swart Masterclass. In 2009, he sat on the masterclass selection jury, and was a master in 2010.