Photographer Jim Marshall, the man who famously captured Jimi Hendrix as he set his guitar on fire at a live concert, passed away in March at the age of 74.

Throughout his nearly 50-year career as a music photographer, Marshall captured decades of iconic rock images of artists like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. Marshall also photographed momentous events in rock 'n' roll history, such as the Woodstock Festival in 1969, the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and the final Beatles concert at...

Irving Penn, the man whose stark, minimalist black-and-white fashion images adorned the cover of Vogue for many years, died in October 2009 at the age of 92.

Born in 1917, Penn was a renowned celebrity fashion and portrait photographer. Beginning his artistic career as a painter and designer at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, he quickly transitioned into photography when he was offered a position as a fashion photographer for Vogue in the 1940s. Within a short period of time, Penn's modernist portraiture style landed him a...

Fine-art photographer Larry Sultan, who was known for his deconstructive images of day-to-day life, died in December 2009 at the age of 63.

Born in New York in 1946, Sultan began college as a political science student but ended up receiving a master’s degree in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973.

Most notably, Sultan’s work included “Evidence,” a project he worked on with fellow art student Mike Mandel that decontextualized photographs from business, industry and government photo archives; “Pictures from Home,” a....

Portrait and landscape photographer Evelyn Hofer, best known for her travel photography in the 1950s and 1960s, died in November 2009 at the age of 87.

Born in Germany in 1922, Hofer moved with her family to Mexico during World War II and to New York after the war ended. Hofer also spent time in Zurich, where she completed an apprenticeship and began a career as a fashion photographer.

She did not spend much time in fashion, however, preferring a more documentary portraiture style...

Marty Forscher, who was 87 at the time of his death in October 2009, was a renowned camera repairman and the owner of Professional Camera Repair Service in midtown Manhattan.

His industry celebrity was marked by his distinguished clientele — photographers such as Richard Avedon, Joel Meyerowitz, Annie Leibovitz and Mary Ellen Mark.

In addition to repairing cameras, Forscher was known for his inventions, such as the “Pro-Back,” a Polaroid attachment...

Social documentary photographer Roy DeCarava, lauded for his advocacy of young African-American photographers and art, died last October at the age of 89.

DeCarava began his photography career early, taking on gigs as a teenager to earn money. He later attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and George Washington Carver Art School.

In addition to his photographic work, DeCarava produced many paintings and silk-screened images early in his career. He fully transitioned into photography after a friend put one of DeCarava’s photos on display in...

Julius Shulman, the architectural photographer known for his commercial images of modernist buildings in California, died of natural causes on July 15 in Los Angeles. He was 98.

Born on a farm in Connecticut, Shulman only dabbled in photography until he was 25, when he began taking pictures of buildings for architect Richard Neutra.

Through Neutra, Shulman met and worked for other industry architects, such as...

French photographer Willy Ronis, known for his humanistic photographs of postwar France, died of natural causes at age 99 this September in Paris.

Influenced by black-and-white photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams, Ronis portrayed scenes of the common worker, factory strikes and everyday Parisian street life.

A native Parisian, Ronis was born in 1910 to a father who ran a photography studio and a mother who taught piano. Young Willy developed an interest...

Noted Bay Area photographer and educator Don Worth died at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., on March 18. He was 84.

Long considered a master printer, Worth specialized in black-and-white images of tropical plants and large-format landscapes. For more than 30 years, he taught photography for many years at San Francisco State University...

Noted photojournalist and master printer Pirkle Jones died on March 15 of heart failure in San Rafael, Calif. He was 95.
Famous for his portraits of migrant farm workers in the 1930s and leaders of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s, Jones was known for his striking social and political imagery. He worked closely with photographers Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, who helped hone...