Alicia Lyman
Born into a family of athletes, musicians and visual artists and growing up on a small 60 acre farm with a private waterski lake her parents built in Southbridge, MA - it's no wonder Alicia Lyman was a highly energetic kid with a huge imagination. Through completing daily chores on the farm, she earned dance, gymnastics, piano, and horseback riding lessons, which instilled a solid connection with Mother Nature and helped her discover her own first forms of self-expression.
Although competing in gymnastics was her first passion, she always knew that she wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Alicia found concentrating in school was really difficult, especially in math class. But that struggle made her work harder than most just to pass each grade. Three days after celebrating her Class of ’94 Southbridge High School Graduation, she moved to the photography and filmmaking school that her Uncle David Lyman founded, now called The Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine.
While working full time in almost every department at The Workshops for two years, Alicia discovered the power of self-expression through still photography. She was then accepted into the inaugural Associate of Arts Degree Program at Rockport College and graduated in 1998. During that time, her Uncle David Spero, an artist’s manager in Cleveland, Ohio, suggested that if she really wanted to become a rock-n-roll photographer, she needed to learn from Henry Diltz in Los Angeles, California. Because she had endured those four very long and cold winters in Maine, couldn’t bear to take one more and most importantly was eager to get to work...she did just that.
Moving to LA was a trip and she learned a lot in just a few short months of shadowing Henry. In 1999, however, he licensed a lot of his life’s work as stock to Corbis and went on an extensive journey to India. It was then that he inspired Alicia to “find your own scene.” So, she dove head first into the LA music scene while holding down four different jobs. She drew upon her years of training as a gymnast and obtained her gymnastics coaching certification, which helped to make ends meet. After experiencing “Y2K” hysteria, a moderate earthquake swarm, a relationship break-up and witnessing how Hollywood worked from the inside, she knew her “scene” wasn’t there in California..
Alicia moved back home to Massachusetts in 2000 and experienced her 16 year old brother’s determination to become a professional wakeboarder blossom. Soon, Alicia agreed to act as her brother’s legal guardian and they moved to Orlando, Florida, to live in a cabin on the Butler chain of lakes where she helped him train relentlessly. Within a year, he became the 2001 Jr. Men’s World Wakeboarding Champion and joined the professional ranks. It was during this time in Orlando that Alicia finally discovered the music scene of her dreams.
During the next decade, Alicia lived those dreams by freelancing for The Orlando Sentinel and Connections Magazine, documenting as many national, international and local bands as possible, and again coaching gymnastics. She also became a Lab Specialist and Course Instructor at Full Sail University. Many of Alicia’s classmates, colleagues, students, as well as musicians she photographed the most during those years are now out there making some of the best music, features, documentaries, sitcoms, reality tv, performances and still photography in the entertainment business today.
2010-2011 brought many difficult life and career changes that motivated Alicia to focus on building her own websites and spending more time with her Man, their dogs and families. Currently, she divides her time between Florida, Massachusetts and Vermont while taking on freelance assignments, continuously updating her archives on www.alicialyman.com and producing stories of inspiration on www.findyourownscene.com.