Fred Lyon

{{Infobox person

| name = Fred Lyon

| birth_name = Frederick George Lyon Jr.

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|09|27}}

| birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|08|22|1924|09|27}}

| death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.

| education = ArtCenter College of Design

| years_active = 1940s–2017

| known_for = Photography

| spouse = Anne (née Murray),
Penelope Whelan Rozis

| children = 2

| website = {{Official website|https://www.fredlyon.com/}}

}}

Fred Lyon (September 27, 1924 – August 22, 2022) was an American photographer.{{Cite magazine |last=Syken |first=Bill |date=2022-03-25 |title=West Coast Wonderful: The Photography of Fred Lyon |url=https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/west-coast-wonderful-the-photography-of-fred-lyon/ |access-date=2022-08-31 |magazine=LIFE |language=en-US}} He was known for shots of foggy San Francisco,{{Cite news |date=August 2017 |title=The Fog |work=Nob Hill Gazette |issue=39 |url=https://www.nobhillgazette.com/departments/the-fog/article_74063a35-91c3-5db2-a496-11c1b561f534.html |oclc=41328641}} and photos of San Francisco life from the 1940s to the 1960s.{{Cite web |date=2014-11-07 |title='Love Letter To San Francisco' Photo Exhibit Opens Tomorrow |url=https://hoodline.com/2014/11/love-letter-to-san-francisco-photo-exhibit-opens-tomorrow/ |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Hoodline |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Fred Lyon: Living Through the Lens |url=https://www.kqed.org/trulyca/102/fred-lyon-living-through-the-lens |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=KQED |date=5 October 2014 |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Whiting |first=Sam |date=2016-08-03 |title=Fred Lyon's midcentury SF photos get their due |url=https://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Fred-Lyon-s-midcentury-SF-photos-get-their-due-9108287.php |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}} Lyon worked in different roles within photography, including as a military photographer, a photojournalist, a fashion photographer, landscape photographer, and as a street photographer. His nocturnal San Francisco photography was often compared with Hungarian–French photographer Brassaï.

Early life and education

Fred Lyon was born on September 27, 1924, at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California.{{Cite web |last=Amand |first=Lisa |date=2022-08-30 |title='His DNA was in San Francisco': Photographer Fred Lyon dies at 97 |url=https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf-photographer-fred-lyon-obituary-17407578.php |access-date=2022-08-31 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Whiting |first=Sam |date=2022-09-09 |title=The negatives sat for years in a file cabinet. They turned him into a star S.F. photographer at age 80 |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/fred-lyon-photographer-17428964.php |access-date=2022-09-11 |website=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en-US}} His father had farming interests and a 18,000-acre ranch in the San Joaquin Valley.{{Cite news |last=Keown |first=Don |date=February 21, 1976 |title=Photographer Fred Lyon's Job: Seduce Our Jaded Senses |pages=33–34 |work=San Rafael Independent Journal |issn=0745-9319}} He was raised in San Carlos and Burlingame.{{Cite web |date=2016-09-17 |title=A Conversation With Fred Lyon, San Francisco Photographer Since The 1940s |url=https://hoodline.com/2016/09/a-conversation-with-fred-lyon-san-francisco-photographer-since-the-1940s/ |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Hoodline |language=en}} He got his first camera at age 12. As a teenager he started practicing photography, and at age 15 he got his first job as a photographer's assistant at the Moulin Studios.

After high school at age 17, he enrolled at Art Center School in Los Angeles (now ArtCenter College of Design). One summer Lyon studied under Ansel Adams, who taught at ArtCenter.

Career

After the Pearl Harbor attack, around 1943, Lyon dropped out of college and enrolled in the United States Navy with the intention of becoming a pilot, but instead he worked as a military photographer. In his role as military photographer, Lyon photographed the Roosevelt family portrait, and was witness to Harry S. Truman’s first day as president.{{Cite web |last=Brekke |first=Dan |date=August 28, 2022 |title=Fred Lyon, Renowned San Francisco Photographer, Dies at Age 97 |url=https://www.kqed.org/news/11923869/fred-lyon-renowned-san-francisco-photographer-dies-at-age-97 |access-date=2022-08-31 |website=KQED |language=en-us}}

After the war he lived in New York City, working as a fashion photographer. In either 1947 or 1948, he had his first photo magazine assignment for Homes and Gardens. He briefly worked for fashion houses in New York City, as well as worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue, Glamour, and Life magazines. His first wife was model Anne (née Murray), who posed in many of his early images.

The couple eventually moved to San Francisco. In 1949, he had a solo exhibition titled, Photographs by Fred G. Lyon, Jr. at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IT87AQAAIAAJ |title=Fortnight: The Newsmagazine of California, Volumes 6-7 |date=1949 |publisher=O. D. Keep |pages=5 |language=en}} In the 1950s, Lyon socialized with Richard Diebenkorn and other painters within the Bay Area Figurative Movement. He would take photographs of San Francisco landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, hotels in Nob Hill and cityscapes, which were often highlighting the fog. Lyon had a love of both old San Francisco, as well as the newer version of the city.

Lyon also had a special interest in photographing vineyards and wineries in nearby Napa and Sonoma. In 2013, the film documentary Fred Lyon: Living Through the Lens was made by filmmaker Michael House.

His last photo was taken when he was in his 90s in 2017 of the 500 Club bar sign in the Mission District.

Personal life and death

{{Quote box

| quote = "I see pictures I would like to take, I need another lifetime to photograph San Francisco. But my life has been so much fun I can't believe it."

| author = Fred Lyon

| source =

| width = 35%

}}

Lyon's first wife Anne (née Murray), a fashion model, died in 1989. They had two sons, Michael and Gordon. In the 1970s Lyon lived in Sausalito, California.

In 2003, Lyon married interior designer Penelope Whelan Rozis.{{Cite web |last=Whiting |first=Sam |date=2010-06-05 |title=Fred Lyon's photos of old San Francisco in show |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Fred-Lyon-s-photos-of-old-San-Francisco-in-show-3186154.php |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US}} For many years he lived in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-11 |title=Nonagenarian Local Photographer Releases 'San Francisco Noir' |url=https://hoodline.com/2017/10/nonagenarian-local-photographer-releases-san-francisco-noir/ |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Hoodline |language=en}}

Lyon died on August 22, 2022, in his home in San Francisco, he had lung cancer. SFGate remembered him as someone with "one of the longest, most prolific careers of any 20th century photographer."{{Cite web |last=Amand |first=Lisa |date=2023-08-30 |title=Prolific Bay Area photographer Fred Lyon dies at 97 |url=https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf-photographer-fred-lyon-obituary-17407578.php |access-date=2024-02-03 |website=SFGate |via=web.archive.org |archive-date=2023-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820153821/https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf-photographer-fred-lyon-obituary-17407578.php |url-status=bot: unknown }}

Publications

{{Cite book |last1=Draper |first1=Margaret F. |title=Ballet for Beginners |last2=Atkinson |first2=Nancy |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |others=Fred Lyon (photography) |year=1952}}
{{Cite book |last=Lyon |first=Fred |title=A Week In Windley's World: Hawaii |publisher=Collier-Macmillan |year=1970 |isbn=9780027615005 |series=Face to Face Series}}
{{Cite book |last1=Gillette |first1=Peter |title=Playboy's Book Of Wine |last2=Gillette |first2=Paul |publisher=The Ridge Press, Inc. |others=Fred Lyon (photography), Playboy Press |year=1974 |isbn=978-0872234116}}
{{Cite book |last=Lyon |first=Fred |title=San Francisco Noir: Photographs by Fred Lyon |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1616896515}}
{{Cite book |last=Lyon |first=Fred |title=Vineyards: Photographs by Fred Lyon |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1616898489}}
{{Cite book |last=Meza |first=Philip E. |title=Inventing the California Look: Interiors by Frances Elkins, Michael Taylor, John Dickinson, and Other Design Innovators |publisher=Rizzoli Press |others=Fred Lyon (photography), Jared Goss (forward) |year=2022 |isbn=978-0847871520}}
{{Cite book |last=Unterberger |first=Richie |title=San Francisco. Portrait of a City |publisher=TASCHEN |others=Fred Lyon (photography) |year=2022 |isbn=9783836574853 |editor-last=Golden |editor-first=Reuel}}