Lauri Lyons was born in the Bronx, New York. She earned a BFA in Media Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1993. From 1993 to 1998, Lyons worked as a freelance Photo Editor for Magnum Photos, The Source, B.E.T, and Essence Magazine. During that time she also worked as a photo assistant for Bruce Davidson and National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey.

In 2006 Lauri Lyons became the first Black female photographer to be signed to Getty Images. Her photography is also commercially represented by Corbis Sygma. In the Frame is an award winning documentary short about her life and work as a photographer. She currently resides in New York City.