Harvey Milk Photo Center director Dave Christensen describes a new exhibit featuring the work of native San Franciscan Fred Lyon, which opens tomorrow, as a “visual love letter to San Francisco.”
“This show is about San Francisco and the people who have inhabited this iconic landscape from the 1940s to the 1960s,” says Christensen, who curated the show along with Lyon. “The whole point is San Francisco and place and people, which I think is really eloquently captured. Fred has a really sophisticated way of capturing imagery.”
Lyon, who just turned 90, first got into photography in high school, which led to a career that has spanned several decades and seen him traverse the entire country. He’s been a White House photographer, a shooter for the big fashion houses in New York City, and a freelancer for magazines like Vogue, Glamour, and Life. But it would seem that his hometown has been his real muse all along.
"He captured a city that was captivating the country, and has ventured into everything from food and fashion to wine, news, and architecture as subjects," according to the Bold Italic.
But don’t take the Bold Italic’s word for it, or Christensen’s, for that matter. See for yourself.
The Harvey Milk Photo Center is hosting an opening party this Saturday (tomorrow), November 8th, from 1pm to 4pm. Lyon will be in attendance signing copies of his new book, San Francisco, Portrait of a City (1940-1960), which was the impetus for the exhibit.
Lyon’s photographs will be up until January 10th, and Dave Christensen, who has been the director of the Harvey Milk Photo Center for five years now, hopes you’ll pay a visit not just to marvel at Lyon’s work and share in the San Francisco love, but to see the Harvey Milk Photo Center itself.
"It’s one of the jewels of the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department," he says.
But Christensen wants to celebrate Fred Lyon’s career more than anything else: "It's really a privilege to showcase his work while he's still shooting and can celebrate with us."
