Fred Lyon Art

American, b. 1927

Known as “San Francisco’s Brassa,” Fred Lyon is a San Francisco native whose photographs have appeared in magazines such as Life, Look, Sports Illustrated, and Vogue. Lyon studied with Ansel Adams, and his photographs over the years have included news, fashion, advertising, and jazz. He’s photographed Billie Holiday and Sonny Rollins as well as dock workers, kids playing on the city’s famously steep Kearny Street, and fishermen in Sausalito. He has explored every corner of his hometown over the years, including photographing bridge painters touching up the Golden Gate Bridge, graphic black-and-white photographs of the city’s neighborhoods and architecture, and images of San Francisco at night.

Artist: Fred Lyon

Fred LyonFoggy Night, Land's End, San Francisco, CA, 1953

$10,000

Foggy Night, Land's End, San Francisco, CA

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Lyon has been called "San Francisco's Brassaï," and has also been compared to Cartier-Bresson, Atget, and Andre Kertesz, but with a San Francisco twist. The lifelong San Francisco Native happily admits his debt to those icons.   Now at eighty-eight years old, his nonstop career reaches back to the early 1940s and embracing news, fashion, architecture, advertising, and food. In the golden years of magazines, his picture credits were everywhere from LIFE to VOGUE. He is now combining his extensive picture files for galleries, publishers, and print collectors. c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonSan Francisco Ballet Backstage, 1957

$5,000

San Francisco Ballet Backstage

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

signed, titled, dated by artist in pencil, verso (c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonSan Francisco. 'Seagull over Golden Gate Bridge, 1950s'. Book & Signed Print, 2022

$1,500

San Francisco. 'Seagull over Golden Gate Bridge, 1950s'. Book & Signed Print

By Fred Lyon

Located in Los Angeles, CA

An epic pictorial history of the City by the Bay Starting with an early picture of a gang of badass gold prospectors who put this beautiful Northern California city on the map, this ambitious and immersive photographic history of San Francisco takes a winding tour through the city from the mid–nineteeth century to the present day. Enjoy eye-catching views of the city’s most enduring landmarks and symbols: the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, the picturesque trams that wind up and down the famously steep hills, the popular waterfront, its beautiful bay, and its spectacular cityscapes and vistas. San Francisco’s counterculture movements that shaped our collective consciousness are also featured prominently: the beats of North Beach, the hippies of Haight-Ashbury, the gay communities of Castro, and the Black Panthers of neighboring Oakland. Some of the city’s most famous residents also make appearances: Robin Williams, The Grateful Dead, Angela Davis...

Category

Mid-20th Century Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Digital, Digital Pigment

Fred LyonHuntington Hotel, 1958

$7,500

Huntington Hotel

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

signed, titled, dated by artist in pencil, verso (c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonFog Along Embarcadero, 1948

$5,000

Fog Along Embarcadero

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

signed, titled, dated by artist in pencil, verso (c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonJones and O'Farrell Street Line, 1946

$5,000

Jones and O'Farrell Street Line

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

signed, titled, dated by artist in pencil, verso (c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonTelegraph Hill, Top of Union Street, c. 1950

$7,500

Telegraph Hill, Top of Union Street

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

signed, titled, dated by artist in pencil, verso (c) The Estate of Fred Lyon Courtesy. Peter Fetterman Gallery

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Lora Webb NicholsTed Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928, 1928

$2,000

H 22.5 in W 17.5 in D 2 in

Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928

By Lora Webb Nichols

Located in New York, NY

Listing includes framing with UV plexiglas, free shipping and a 14 day return policy. Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928 15 x 12 inch gelatin silver print Image Size: 14 x 8.5 inches Frame size: 22.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches Edition of 15 Lora Webb Nichols was born in 1883 and grew up in the small mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. At the age of 16 Lora received her first camera and from that moment and for the next few decades she produced work that is both stunning in its singular voice and revealing in the world it opens up for us. At first Nichols photographed her family, friends, and the landscape around Encampment, but when the town experienced a copper mining boom Nichols expanded her scope to become a photographer for hire shooting portraits and industrial photographs. When the boom collapsed, Nichols took the risk of opening her own business in Encampment - The Rocky Mountain Studio - which opened in 1925. The studio ran for ten years, accumulating 24,000 negatives that illustrate the lives and environment of the people living in and around the town while creating a distinctive and surprising body of work. If one was to attempt an analogy – Nichols’ pictures fit somewhere between Lartigue and Lange - joyful and generous while objectively intimate. In particular what seems to distinguish Nichols’ work is the way she sees the world from a female perspective. As Vince Aletti...

Category

1920s Other Art Style Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Julian WasserEve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum, 1963

$5,000

H 11 in W 14 in

Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum

By Julian Wasser

Located in New York, NY

Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...

Category

1960s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Julian WasserJoan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.), 1968

$6,500

H 20 in W 16 in

Joan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.)

By Julian Wasser

Located in New York, NY

Listing includes free shipping for unframed prints and a 14 day return policy. Joan Didion by Julian Wasser 20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print Edition 3 of 15 Signed on verso by Julian Wasser *Please inquire for international shipments. Quotes will be provided at cost via FedEx. Description - Julian Wasser started his career in photography in the Washington DC bureau of the Associated Press where he met and accompanied the famous news photographer Weegee – who would become a lasting influence on him. In the mid-60s Wasser moved to Los Angeles as a contract photographer for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE magazines and becoming internationally known as the go to guy for getting candid but memorably composed photographs. (His iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz; and a young Jodie Foster are already classics.) In 1968 TIME Magazine assigned Wasser to go to the home of the young writer Joan Didion whose book Slouching Towards Bethlehem was becoming a literary sensation. “I’d read her fiction,” said Wasser. “and she didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to...

Category

1960s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Seydou KeïtaUntitled Portrait, 1952-1955

$8,500

H 23.5 in W 19.5 in

Untitled Portrait

By Seydou Keïta

Located in New York, NY

Listing includes framing with UV Plexi ($900 value), free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. Seydou Keïta Untitled Portrait, 1952 - 1955 (02158) 23...

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

David EmmiteBreaking the Waves, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Breaking the Waves

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

David EmmiteBorrowing the Surgeon's Rowboat, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Borrowing the Surgeon's Rowboat

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

David EmmiteThoughts and Prayers, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Thoughts and Prayers

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

David EmmiteStronger Than I Am Accustomed To, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Stronger Than I Am Accustomed To

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

David EmmiteCircular Consequence, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Circular Consequence

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Richard HeepsBlack and White Photography Set of Nine, 2000-2021

$7,366

H 94.49 in W 94.49 in D 1.97 in

Black and White Photography Set of Nine

By Richard Heeps

Located in Cambridge, GB

A set of nine black and white photographs by Richard Heeps. They can be hung in a grid, or spaced out throughout your interior. Richard Heeps, primarily known as a colour photographe...

Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin

Juan José Díaz Infante"Porfirio Díaz in the exhile in Paris" - Vertical black and white print., 2021

$400Sale Price|20% Off

H 22 in W 17 in

"Porfirio Díaz in the exhile in Paris" - Vertical black and white print.

By Juan José Díaz Infante

Located in Miami, FL

In 1911 Porfirio Díaz was exhiled to Paris from Mexico, this is a rare photograph shot in Paris as a Daguerrotype, later on an intenegative was done to...

Category

20th Century Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Black and White

David EmmiteNever Let Me Go, 2026

$800

H 13 in W 20 in

Never Let Me Go

Located in New Orleans, LA

Framed dimensions: 18h x 24w inches. Edition 2 of 10. David Emmite says of his work... My work seeks to ask questions about human relationships with technology, nature, and each ot...

Category

2010s Contemporary Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Previously Available Items

Fred LyonSan Francisco. 'Union Square, Post Street, 1947'. Signed, Black & White Print, 2022

Sold

H 20 in W 16 in

San Francisco. 'Union Square, Post Street, 1947'. Signed, Black & White Print

By Fred Lyon

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Category

Mid-20th Century Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Digital, Digital Pigment

Fred LyonOpening Night at the Opera, San Francisco, 1949

Sold

H 24 in W 20 in

Opening Night at the Opera, San Francisco

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Lyon has been called "San Francisco's Brassaï," and has also been compared to Cartier-Bresson, Atget, and Andre Kertesz, but with a San Francisco twist. The lifelong San Francisco Na...

Category

1940s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonCable Car Line, San Francisco, 1959

Sold

H 14 in W 11 in

Cable Car Line, San Francisco

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Lyon has been called "San Francisco's Brassaï," and has also been compared to Cartier-Bresson, Atget, and Andre Kertesz, but with a San Francisco twist. The lifelong San Francisco Na...

Category

1950s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonOpening Night at the Opera, San Francisco, 1949

Sold

H 20 in W 16 in

Opening Night at the Opera, San Francisco

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Opening Night at the Opera, San Francisco 1949 Gelatin Silver print Signed & titled in pencil on verso. 16 x 20 inches. Matted to 20 x 24 inches. Additional sizes available.

Category

1940s Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred LyonRichard Diebenkorn, 1958

Sold

H 20 in W 16 in

Richard Diebenkorn

By Fred Lyon

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Category

Fred Lyon Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Fred Lyon art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Fred Lyon art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Fred Lyon in silver gelatin print, archival paper, digital pigment print and more. Not every interior allows for large Fred Lyon art, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ida Lansky, Harold Feinstein, and Ezra Stoller. Fred Lyon art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,500 and tops out at $10,000, while the average work can sell for $7,500.