Celebrity and fashion photographer, Bert Stern, best known for being the last photographer to shoot actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962, died at home in New York City on June 25. He was 83.

Stern began his career in 1946 at Look magazine as an assistant to art director Hershel Bramson, where he worked with Stanley Kubrick, who was then a Look photographer. From 1949 to 1951, Stern served as...

Photojournalist Gordon Parks, known for his work with Life magazine as well as for directing films, died at his home in New York City on March 7, at the age of 93.

Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kan., in 1912, the youngest of 15 children. In 1941, he became the first photographer to receive a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. He joined the staff of the Farm Security Administration and, later, the Office of War Information, whose combined collection of documentary photographs is among 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...

Helmut Newton died in a car crash in Hollywood on Jan. 23, at the age of 83. Newton was known for his black-and-white nudes and his fashion photography, which appeared in magazines such as Elle and Vogue. Newton's wife June, who works as Alice Springs, accepted the offer of an official grave of honor in Newton's hometown, Berlin.
Newton left Germany in 1938, changed his name from Neustaedter, and took Australian citizenship. After World War II, he became a photographer, eventually settling in...

Like so many things in life, photography runs in cycles based on reaction and a desire for change, even if that means reinventing the wheel at times. Sometimes these changes lack the proper historical perspective of all that has gone before. Other times, the changes sought harken back to seemingly safer, more predictable times.

In the post-Civil War years, American photographers began turning their attention from the war to the West. They brought home images of the incredible, endless landscapes of the new frontier to an East hungry for expansion. They built an enthusiasm for these places that would help lead to the founding of the national park system, starting with Yellowstone National Park in 1872.

Today, more than a century later, nature photographers are still bringing home images...