San Francisco, Portrait of a City: 1940-1960

by Fred Lyon

With a landmark around every corner and a picture perfect view atop every hill, San Francisco might be the world's most picturesque city. And yet, the Golden City is so much more than postcard vistas. It's a town alive with history, culture, and a palpable sense of grandeur best captured by a man known as San Francisco's Brassai. Walking the city's foggy streets, the fourth-generation San Franciscan captures the local's view in dramatic black-and-white photos— from fog-drenched mornings in North Beach and cable cars on Market Street to moody night shots of Coit Tower and the twists and turns of Lombard Street. In San Francisco, Portrait of a City 1940–1960 , Fred Lyon captures the iconic landscapes and one-of-a-kind personalities that transformed the city by the bay into a legend. Lyon's anecdotes and personal remembrances, including sly portraits of San Francisco characters such as writer Herb Caen, painters Richard Diebenkorn and Jean Varda, and madame and former mayor of Sausalito Sally Stanford add an artist's first-hand view to this portrait of a classic American city.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, History, Noir

223 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2014

Reviews

[Mariℓina · Rating 5 out of 5]

San Francisco, what an amazing city! Always historically significant, culturally progressive and also alternative but nevertheless still glamorous and charming in a very unique way.



A few days ago i read another photography book about San Francisco and its everyday beauty in our time and it was great, but i still wanted something more and i founded it right in here.




Now this book is a tell all of the City by the Bay in the the middle of the 20th century, through brilliant black and white portraits and with a distinctive perspective that makes the reader lose himself in another era much more elegant and quaint than ours.



I absolutely adored it and i feel that i can't stress enough how incredible it was. My rating is of course 5 big stars not only in view of the fact that the quality of the portraits in stunning, but also due to the ethnographic value. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who cares about photography in general.

[Doris Gourbere · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beautiful dresses, the hats, the heavy fog, the sparse traffic on the GG bridge.. Such a very different and beautiful era!

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

11/03/2014 Review:
I actually took a few days to go through this book from cover to cover; there's not much text, but each photograph tells a story and evokes a particular time and place. It's a beautiful portrait of a city I love in a time before I knew it (or was born). The scattered bits of text are concise and fascinating, adding depth to the story unfolding on the pages. This is a lovely book that has earned a visible spot on my coffee table (how glad I am that I finally purchased a coffee table for this purpose!).

06/07/2021 Reread:
I'm glad I'm actually taking the time to go through these books again, rather than simply dropping them into my growing donate pile, as I attempt to clear out room in an apartment that always seems to fill with new things that have no place to go.

But this book is staying. It's something I would desperately miss if I ever move away from the Bay Area, and it's reminded me, after more than a year of being near this city but not really in it, how much I miss all those beautiful fog-soaked streets and the bridges and landmarks and people.

Lyon's love for San Francisco certainly comes across in his photography. The photos may be from more than half a century ago, but the city hasn't changed all that much. There's a reason people still live here, despite the earthquakes and steep hills and steeper cost of living. We love it, that's all. We've left our hearts here.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love just walking around San Francisco...there is always something new to discover. This book takes a look at how this city has changed...and why people are still leaving their hearts here.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, perceptive, and recognizable portraits of San Francisco in the mid-20th century. Worth a look for anyone who would like to know what makes SF distinctive, but especially interesting for those who spend time here today.

[BookABooBoo Ludlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

San Francisco is an amazing place. No one captures its old Bohemian and working class charm like Fred Lyon who walked the foggy night ways documenting a city that no longer exists todat. By this book. Sink into its foggy reassuring photos of days gone by. Stunning work.

[Steve Angelkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful selection of black and white images of San Francisco, between 1940-60s.

[Jodi Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyon's signature style: stunning b&w photographs of an earlier era in San Francisco that capture both mood and nostalgia in a noir like manner; through fog and mist, streetlights mysterious glow, men in hats and women sharply dressed for downtown visits, aerial views from the Golden Gate Bridge, and street scenes form recognizable streets to those who know, love or long for San Fransisco.

[Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful reminder of what a beautiful city San Francisco was, (and in most ways, still is).

[Brendan Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyon captures and preserves a period of SF and America that is almost all but gone.

SF is still a beautiful city today in 2021, but it's interesting seeing the dress, the architecture, the cars, and the streets of a past era.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful photographs of San Francisco in 1940 through 1960.