32 Stunning Photos Of San Francisco In The 40s And 50s

From Fred Lyon's San Francisco: Portrait of a City 1940 - 1960.

Posted on October 19, 2014, 10:58 GMT

Alan White

BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

1. Photographer Fred Lyon, a San Francisco native, is now 90 years old.

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3. According to his online biography: "His nonstop career reaches back to the early 1940s and embraces news, fashion, architecture, advertising, wine and food."

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5. It goes on to say: "In the golden years of magazine publishing his picture credits were everywhere from Life to Vogue and beyond."

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7. In the 1940s and 50s most photography was still black and white (colour eclipsed monochrome by the 1960s).

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9. In an interview earlier this year, he said: "Early on, in the 1940s, I lived in Sausalito and daily crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, a dramatic steel sculpture in a theatrical setting."

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11. "The bridge, aided by my romantic and naïve world view, launched my lifelong affair with the city it serves."

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13. Ramekon O'Arwisters, who curated an exhibition of Lyon's photos, told Huffington Post: "Lyon witnessed and photographed the transformation of San Francisco into a center for optimism, posterity, and growth."

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15. "His black-and-white images of children playing on a makeshift boat and young sailors casually shopping at Fisherman's Wharf explore the idyllic past with hope and confidence."

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17. In the interview earlier this year, Lyon said: "Of course there are myriad changes."

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19. "There is still a backbone of wealthy Old Guard, but they are contrasted and challenged by young creatives and techies from Silicon Valley."

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21. "Still, the look of the landmarks is unchanged, as is the attitude of the people, who have always embraced the frontier view that daily risk is healthy."

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23. His work has been recognised by the city's former mayor, Willie Brown.

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25. In a contribution to the book, Brown wrote: "Call them picture postcards with an edge, with an angle, a point of view and some with a message."

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27. "Although Fred won't like me to use that word 'message.' He says he looks until he likes what he sees and then he pushes that button."

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29. "But followers of Fred's long photographic career note that he has been capturing the city's unique, sometimes strange, sometimes loopy, always exciting images for more than 60 years."

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31. Lyon's book is available here.

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