Features
Meet Mr Paparazzi
He's the boy from Geelong whose outsized ambition transformed him into the UK's top photo agency boss. Darryn Lyons shares the secrets behind his hottest shots with Jocasta Shakespeare.
There's a megaphone slung over Darryn Lyons's throne-like chair in his London office. But watching the flamboyant ex-paparazzo swear loudly before stamping over the lion-skin rug splayed across the floor and yelling for coffee, it's hard to imagine him ever needing to use it. "Actually," he comments later, "you won't believe me, but I'm quite shy and sensitive." He's right – it is hard to believe. Everything about "Dazza" is loud and in your face, from his canary-yellow suit to his brightly coloured mohawk, which (this week, at least) is a startling raspberry red. "It's called brand building," he says, with a wink. "And I don't have to look at it."
Lyons, 42, is the multi-millionaire boss of BIG Pictures, which he modestly describes as "the world's biggest and best celebrity picture agency". In essence, the agency functions as a kind of clearing house: Lyons has a network of 1000 paparazzi all over the world, who send him pictures that he then sells to newspapers and magazines. The agency handles up to an astounding 5000 pictures every day.
It's all a long way from his sleepy Australian home town of Geelong in Victoria, and Lyons is justifiably proud of his success. "I was at the forefront; I helped make celebrity the main source of news in Britain," he declares. And this is a good thing? With a piercing stare, he immediately shoots back: "Celebrity sells more magazines. People don't want bad news."
Ringmaster of the celebrity circus, he speaks with a compelling enthusiasm. "I am to celebrity what Colonel Sanders is to Kentucky Fried Chicken – that's a good quote! You can have it!" he commands, stabbing the air with one finger. Since Lyons was the original paparazzi pioneer, it's not surprising he's become famous himself, thanks largely to the TV series Paparazzi, a fly-on-the-wall exploration of BIG Pictures (which screens in Australia on The LifeStyle Channel).
But with success has come controversy. Lyons has been criticised for hounding celebrities and he and his colleagues attracted particular opprobrium at the time of Princess Diana's death. Notoriously, two of the photographers pursuing Diana on the night she died tried to sell shots to Lyons, and a large chunk of his new autobiography, Mr Paparazzi, is written in defence of his trade and that night.
Lyons, who regularly photographed Diana in the '90s, says she was "a hustler" who knew how to manipulate the media. Even now, he speaks faster and louder as he describes her death as "the greatest news story of my life".
He was sitting at home on the night of August 31, 1997, when he got a phone call from a French paparazzo agency, breaking the incredible news that Diana had been in a serious car accident. Lyons believes he was one of the first people in the UK to know about the crash, and he raced to his office.
Lyons's French contact (whose photographers were in the tunnel) was soon firing through photos of Diana, as she lay barely conscious in the wrecked Mercedes. Initial reports suggested she was suffering from "concussion and a broken arm".
Then the shocking news came: Diana had died. Lyons was faced with the biggest decision of his life – either make millions by selling the pictures of Diana at the scene, or bin them for ethical reasons. Amazingly (and he also finds this hard to explain), he chose the latter.
Read more about this celebrity snapper in the April issue of marie claire.
There's a megaphone slung over Darryn Lyons's throne-like chair in his London office. But watching the flamboyant ex-paparazzo swear loudly before stamping over the lion-skin rug splayed across the floor and yelling for coffee, it's hard to imagine him ever needing to use it. "Actually," he comments later, "you won't believe me, but I'm quite shy and sensitive." He's right – it is hard to believe. Everything about "Dazza" is loud and in your face, from his canary-yellow suit to his brightly coloured mohawk, which (this week, at least) is a startling raspberry red. "It's called brand building," he says, with a wink. "And I don't have to look at it."
Lyons, 42, is the multi-millionaire boss of BIG Pictures, which he modestly describes as "the world's biggest and best celebrity picture agency". In essence, the agency functions as a kind of clearing house: Lyons has a network of 1000 paparazzi all over the world, who send him pictures that he then sells to newspapers and magazines. The agency handles up to an astounding 5000 pictures every day.
It's all a long way from his sleepy Australian home town of Geelong in Victoria, and Lyons is justifiably proud of his success. "I was at the forefront; I helped make celebrity the main source of news in Britain," he declares. And this is a good thing? With a piercing stare, he immediately shoots back: "Celebrity sells more magazines. People don't want bad news."
Ringmaster of the celebrity circus, he speaks with a compelling enthusiasm. "I am to celebrity what Colonel Sanders is to Kentucky Fried Chicken – that's a good quote! You can have it!" he commands, stabbing the air with one finger. Since Lyons was the original paparazzi pioneer, it's not surprising he's become famous himself, thanks largely to the TV series Paparazzi, a fly-on-the-wall exploration of BIG Pictures (which screens in Australia on The LifeStyle Channel).
But with success has come controversy. Lyons has been criticised for hounding celebrities and he and his colleagues attracted particular opprobrium at the time of Princess Diana's death. Notoriously, two of the photographers pursuing Diana on the night she died tried to sell shots to Lyons, and a large chunk of his new autobiography, Mr Paparazzi, is written in defence of his trade and that night.
Lyons, who regularly photographed Diana in the '90s, says she was "a hustler" who knew how to manipulate the media. Even now, he speaks faster and louder as he describes her death as "the greatest news story of my life".
He was sitting at home on the night of August 31, 1997, when he got a phone call from a French paparazzo agency, breaking the incredible news that Diana had been in a serious car accident. Lyons believes he was one of the first people in the UK to know about the crash, and he raced to his office.
Lyons's French contact (whose photographers were in the tunnel) was soon firing through photos of Diana, as she lay barely conscious in the wrecked Mercedes. Initial reports suggested she was suffering from "concussion and a broken arm".
Then the shocking news came: Diana had died. Lyons was faced with the biggest decision of his life – either make millions by selling the pictures of Diana at the scene, or bin them for ethical reasons. Amazingly (and he also finds this hard to explain), he chose the latter.
Read more about this celebrity snapper in the April issue of marie claire.
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