About Frederic Larson Photography

Frederic Larson Pulitzer Prize Finalist was a photojournalist at the San Francisco Chronicle for thirty years, where he covered all types of assignments - from fires to football, earthquakes to celebrities. It is his intimate photos of nature - particularly of the sun, moon, and fog - at play with San Francisco's monuments and icons that have captivated readers for years. His photography book titled Mystical San Francisco is wealth of breathtaking photographs shot from unusual camera angles and imaginative viewpoints provide new perspectives on the beauty and magic of the City by the Bay--under moonlight, shrouded in fog including writings from Herb Caen.

Biography 

Like most staff shooters for major metropolitan papers, I've covered everything in my daily assignments from fires to football, from earthquakes to celebrities. I have received numerous awards for my work, which also has been included in ten books. But the most satisfying photography for me is my documentary work … stories I've developed on my own.

It is through my documentary work that I have met people who have inspired me and given my work a new passion, people of unwavering spirit who survive despite horrible situations.

My documentary work on the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings resulted in my being named a 1988 Pulitzer Prize finalist. It also won me the highest honor in the Associated Press Sweepstakes from the news executive council of California and Nevada, and it was the heart of my portfolio that earned me the California Press Photographer of the Year for 1989. I was able to document the survivors' struggles, nearly 50 years after the bombings, because I was the first photojournalist to win a grant from the Hibakusha Travel Grant Program.

That story inspired me to do a photo story on people who are allergic to the world, a condition known as environmental illness. After spending a year on the project, I was named a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith World Understanding Award.   That photo story, along with a series documenting life in the toughest neighborhood in San Francisco, the Tenderloin, once again won me the title California Press Photographer of the year for 1990.  I was named finalist again this year for W. Eugene Smith Award for a portfolio of Haight & Ashbury Street children.  I was tributed the title of 1991 Photographer of the Year from Bay Area Press Association for a portfolio of work that included photo-stories of Romanian children and the Oakland fire.

While the recognition and awards I have received for my photography have been nice, they are not the reason I do what I do. The stories I have documented and hope to continue documenting are those that provoke discussion and bear witness to those without the power or voice to be heard on their own.

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