Hy Peskin, sports photographer and philanthropist, died of kidney disease June 3 at the age of 89.

Peskin, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., first entered the world of journalism by selling newspapers as a boy. He later became a sportswriter for the New York Daily Mirror.

After a stint in the Marines from 1943 to 1944, Peskin became interested in stop-action color photography...

James G. Lott, a longtime Seattle Times photographer, died in early July of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 52. Lott's award-winning work was marked by a compassion and empathy for the less fortunate, and his coworkers have created the Jimi Lott Scholarship through the National Press Photographers Foundation in his honor.

Co-workers remember Lott for his keen eye, boundless energy, willingness to experiment, and ability to capture moments and images that spoke to the heart.

For four consecutive years (1985-1988), he won the Reid Blackburn Memorial Award for outstanding...

After 20 years as executive director of SF Camerawork, Marnie Gillett died Dec. 3, 2004, following a lengthy battle with breast cancer. During her tenure, Gillett established Camerawork as a launching pad for emerging artists. She also was pivotal in helping raise San Francisco’s profile as an art community leading the exploration of the photographic medium.

Before assuming the leadership of Camerawork, Gillett was curator of exhibitions at the University of Arizona’s...

Craig Aurness, known for his work in National Geographic, died Dec. 14, 2004, in Panorama City, Calif. Aurness had been undergoing treatment for lung and anemia complications. He was 58.

The adopted son of James Arness, Aurness grew up on a ranch in Southern California. In the 1970s, he apprenticed with Look magazine photographer Earl Tyson. His first assignment for National Geographic was published in 1978, and he...

Activist and author Susan Sontag died of leukemia on Dec. 28, 2004, at the age of 71. It was Sontag’s third bout with cancer since 1976, a disease that informed much of her writing in the last few decades.

Sontag was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City, in 1933. Following the death of her father when she was five, the family lived in Arizona and Los Angeles, where her mother married an Army officer, Capt. Nathan Sontag.

After graduating from North Hollywood High School at 15, she attended...

Josef Scaylea, one of the Seattle Times’ most recognized photographers, died on July 20 of natural causes, at the age of 91.

The son of Italian immigrants, Scaylea was born Josef Scaglia on a Connecticut farm in 1913. He attended a photography school in New York, then put his newly-polished skills to work in corporate and trade publications. After serving as an army photographer in the Pacific during World War II, he settled in Seattle. He was hired by the Seattle Times and spent the next 35 years...

Ed Glazer, founder of Glazer’s Camera in Seattle, died June 8 at the age of 95. Glazer launched his business in 1935, from a location on First Avenue, not far from Pioneer Square. With the goal of becoming Seattle’s finest photography resource, Glazer moved the store to Third Avenue in the 1960s, followed by another move to its current location at Eighth and Republican in the early 90's.

Many internationally known photographers, such as Bob Peterson and Chuck Kuhn, credit Glazer with helping them through the early days of their careers, and recall many...

The nature photography community lost two of its most prominent role models earlier this year. In February, venerable nature photographer Erwin Bauer died of bone marrow cancer at his home in Sequim, Wash. Erwin's death was followed a month later by that of his wife and artistic partner, Peggy, who was killed in a car accident on March 23.

Following his graduation from the University of Cincinnati, Erwin served in World War II, for which he was awarded the...

Francesco Scavullo died on Jan. 6, at the age of 82. Scavullo was known for enamel on canvas photo silkscreens, portraits and still lifes. One of the dominant photographic influences on American fashion, he photographed the covers of Cosmopolitan for 30 years.

His celebrity photographs also appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone, Life...

Leni Riefenstahl died on Sept. 8, 2003, in Poecking, Germany, a few weeks after her 101st birthday. Following a knee injury that ended her career as a dancer, Riefenstahl turned to film, gaining fame as an actress, director, producer and reporter. Her documentary "Triumph des Willens," named after the 1934 Reich Party Congress in Nuremberg, garnered her gold medals in Venice in 1935 and at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. In subsequent years, however, the film was widely condemned...