Fred Lyon

Fred Lyon (September 27, 1924 – August 22, 2022) was an American photographer. He was known for shots of foggy San Francisco, and photos of San Francisco life from the 1940s to the 1960s. 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. His father had farming interests and a 18,000-acre ranch in the San Joaquin Valley. He was raised in San Carlos and Burlingame.

After the war he lived in New York City, working as a fashion photographer. In the 1950s, Lyon socialized with Richard Diebenkorn and other painters within the Bay Area Figurative Movement. For many years he lived in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco.

Publications