Fred Lyon

Fred Lyon was born on September 27, 1924, at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California.[2][7] His father had farming interests and a 18,000-acre ranch in the San Joaquin Valley.[8] He was raised in San Carlos and Burlingame.[2][9][7] He got his first camera at age 12.[7] 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.[8]

After high school at age 17, he enrolled at Art Center School in Los Angeles (now ArtCenter College of Design).[2][7] One summer Lyon studied under Ansel Adams, who taught at ArtCenter.[2]

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,[7] but instead he worked as a military photographer.[8][2] In his role as military photographer, Lyon photographed the Roosevelt family portrait,[7] and was witness to Harry S. Truman’s first day as President.[10]

After the war he lived in New York City, working as a fashion photographer.[2] In either 1947 or 1948, he had his first photo magazine assignment for Homes and Gardens.[8] He briefly worked for fashion houses in New York City, as well as worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue, Glamour, and Life magazines.[4] His first wife was model Anne (née Murray), who posed in many of his early images.[2]

The couple eventually moved to San Francisco.[2] In 1949, he had a solo exhibition titled, Photographs by Fred G. Lyon, Jr. at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[11] In the 1950s, Lyon socialized with Richard Diebenkorn and other painters within the Bay Area Figurative Movement.[3] 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.[2] Lyon had a love of both old San Francisco, as well as the newer version of the city.[10]

Lyon also had a special interest in photographing vineyards and wineries in nearby Napa and Sonoma.[10] In 2013, the film documentary Fred Lyon: Living Through the Lens was made by filmmaker Michael House.[5]

His last photo was taken when he was in his 90s in 2017 of the 500 Club bar sign in the Mission District.[7] He died on August 22, 2022, in his home in San Francisco, he had lung cancer.[2]

Lyon's first wife Anne (née Murray), a fashion model, died in 1989.[2] They had two sons, Michael and Gordon.[2] In the 1970s Lyon lived in Sausalito, California.[8]

In 2003, Lyon married interior designer Penelope Whelan Rozis.[2][12] For many years he lived in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco.[13]

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

• Interview: Fred Lyon - 75 Years of Photography (2019), Analog Forever Magazine
• Interview: The Rumpus Interview with Fred Lyon (2012), The Rumpus

• Official website
• Fred Lyon at IMDb