Lynton received a BA from Yale University in 1994, and a MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2000. She has exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions in New York City; Amherst, Massachusetts; Miami, Florida; and Berlin, Germany. Holly has been an artist mentor for students at The New School in New York, and a visiting instructor at the Aegean Center in Paros, Greece and Amherst College, Amherst Massachusetts. Her work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, The Village Voice, The Miami Herald, Photo District News, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and ARTnews. Recent awards in 2012 include an Artist Resource Trust grant and a Prix Pictet photography prize nomination.