He started to play piano and organ on a weekly radio program in Lexington at the age of sixteen.

[3] Lon developed an interest in photography as a teenager, with his parents buying him a Kodak Box camera.

In 1942, Lon released his first catalogue of physique photography, and had a series of photographs of bodybuilder John Grimek published in Strength & Health magazine.

[7] After the second world war, Lon devoted himself entirely to physique photography, abandoning his music career.

Though Lon was known for a camp demeanour in private, and sometimes photographed drag queens, his physique photography was serious rather than campy, featuring highly masculine models and poses.

He was a contemporary of, and many would argue also inspired, several other photographers in different regions of the country including Bruce Bellas (Bruce of Los Angeles), Bob Mizer (Athletic Model Guild or AMG) Douglas Juleff (Douglas of Detroit), Don Whitman of Western Photography Guild in Denver and, in Northern California, Russ Warner in Oakland and Dave Martin in San Francisco.

Most Lon of New York works were considered too "dirty" to be included in public collections during his career.

[15] Despite Hanagan being inactive in photography in the latter part of his life, his photographs were distributed in exhibitions in the United States.