Career
He was the first African-American photographer, opening a daguerrotype studio in New Orleans in 1840 one year after the invention of the process. On March 14, 1840, the New Orleans Bee published a notice about an exhibition of Lion"s daguerreotypes at the Saint Charles Museum, the first documented photography exhibition in Louisiana. While Lion also painted, his main focus was a series of lithographed portraits of prominent Louisianans and people connected to Louisiana history, including John James Audubon and Andrew Jackson.
Lion taught art at the Louisiana College and, late in his life, created lithographed Confederate sheet music covers.