Lyon - San Francisco : portrait of a city 1940-1960

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Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions. Editors: Jennifer Lippert and Jay Sacher
Designer: Elana Schlenker
Photo sequencing: Ross Mantle Special thanks to: Mariam Aldhahi, Meredith Baber, Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek Brower, Janet Behning, Megan Carey, Carina Cha, Andrea Chlad, Barbara Darko, Benjamin English, Russell Fernandez, Will Foster, Jan Hartman, Diane Levinson, Jennifer Lippert, Katharine Myers, Jaime Nelson, Jay Sacher, Rob Shaeffer, Marielle Suba, Paul Wagner, and Joseph Weston of Princeton Architectural Press
Kevin C. Lippert, publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lyon, Fred.
San Francisco: portrait of a city 19401960 / Fred Lyon.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-61689-266-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-61689-368-2 (epub, mobi)
1. San Francisco (Calif.)Pictorial works. I.

Title.
F869.S343L96 2014
979.46100222dc23
2014006394

Fred Lyon On even the most humdrum days of its history, San Francisco remains a photographers delight, but in the optimistic years following World War II, it had a special aura. The exuberance and energetic growth of America during the 1940s and 50s was unprecedented, and on the western edge of the continent the mood seemed even more palpable. San Francisco was entering a new golden age. The postcard-perfect panorama of familiar landmarks mixed with fresh projects and new faces to create a visual buffet, just begging to have its picture taken. Smog had yet to be invented, so sharp blue skies prevailed, relieved only by the dramatic descent of fog over the citys hills. For the fresh eye of a young photographer like myself, it was an intoxicating kaleidoscope.

But first, I had to get there. After the war, I too was caught up in the restless spirit of the times. I wound up my Navy Press service as a news photographer in Washington, DC and began to redirect my career toward fashion photography in New York. And then, a quick visit to San Francisco stretched into months. To avoid embarrassment, I announced to friends and family that I was now a magazine photographer, without having the slightest notion of what that might entail. I constantly repeated it until an unwary editor finally offered me an assignment.

Thus began my downward slide. To stay afloat, I peppered all the magazines with suggestions for local stories. New York magazine editors would ask me, Well, what do you have out there? At least that part was an easy sell. To start, we had our steep hills and iconic cable cars, and our two spectacular bridges. The bay, the fog, distinctive neighborhoods like Chinatown, and one-of-a-kind personalities, like the citys de facto poet laureate, the newspaperman Herb Caen. Happily, my San Francisco sales pitch tended to work, and these photographs are its result. Happily, my San Francisco sales pitch tended to work, and these photographs are its result.

Over the decades the city has changed, but it wears its history well. The ghosts of the Bohemian writers and artists still seem close at hand in North Beach, mysteries linger in the back alleys of Chinatown, and the waterfront violence of Harry Bridges labor uprising lurks just beneath the cobblestones of todays polished Embarcadero. In the visage of the Golden Gate, we still see the myth that servicemen left behind as they shipped out to war, and the beacon that welcomed their return. The promise that drew the flower children in the Summer of Love remains, offering visions of peace and friendship. San Francisco has spawned so many superlatives that they gloss over scores of maddening aspects of daily life here. Yet on average the population would defend the town against all comers.

Sure, theres the self-satisfied old guard noted for its comfortable stuffiness. But while thats always been true, its been offset by waves of ravenous creatives in business and the arts. After all, this is still the American frontier, the jumping off point for all levels of gamblers and entrepreneurs. The city attracts independent, defiant personalities who embrace failure en route to fame and fortune. A WPA brochure from the 1930s said of the town that the universal delight in just being alive here, which has amazed so many outsiders has its source very largely in a certain playfulness of spirita natural gusto. Decades later and well into a new century, that statement still holds true.

That universal delight is something Ive always tried to capture in my photographs of the city, and its also always been the answer to the more personal question of why San Francisco? To put it another way, I just love this place!

Hyde Street cable line, looking down Lombard to Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge. Skate coasters, North Beach. Steep Filbert Street staircase on Telegraph Hill. Facade of a waterfront pier. Parking on the steep hill just below the Mark Hopkins hotel. Cable car commuters. Fog, Noe Valley at Eighteenth Street. Next page