But for his exhibit at the
at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton) throughout March with a wine reception on March 1 (6–8pm) as part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission‘s First Tuesday Artwalk, Larson is diving into mixed media with a series he’s calling “Romantic Rebound.”Larson, who won a Milley Award for visual arts in 2010, is using some of his renowned photos as the basis for the new work, but mixing in the use of paint, epoxy resin, metals and pieces of found art to create something else entirely.
“It’s been really fun to ‘rebound’ with some of my old photos and create something new,” says Larson, widely known locally as a longtime Mill Valley Little League coach and father of two sons who attended local public schools.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1949, Larson grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated with a degree in radio and television from San Francisco State University in 1975 where he would later teach a course in photojournalism. For four years after graduation, Larson was a freelance photographer for United Press International in San Francisco. He served six years in the U.S. Naval Reserves.
Larson moved to Mill Valley in 1981 and for more than 30 years was a photographer Chronicle. Over the course of his career, Larson garnered more than 50 photography awards. In 1988, he was the first photojournalist to win the Hibakusha Travel Grant Program to photograph the WWII atom bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The photographic material from the Hibakusha story was a finalist in the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
Larson was named twice Photographer of the Year for 1989-90 from the California Press Photographers’ Association and 1991’s Photographer of the Year from the Bay Area Press Photographers Association. In 1988 he was awarded the Associated Press Sweepstakes from the News Executives Council of California and Nevada. In 1987 and 1990 he was elected to the Photography Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, for best and second best sports feature photograph.
He is published in over a dozen books including Mystical San Francisco, which he created with former Chronicle Publisher and former Mill Valley resident Phil Bronstein and published in October 2006.
The 411: Frederic Larson exhibits his ‘Romantic Rebound’ mixed media work Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center, 85 Throckmorton Avenue, throughout March. The First Tuesday Artwalk receptions are Tuesday, March 1, 6–8pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.