Photographers tend to be silent artists. They let their work speak, but you rarely get to know the person behind the camera. So while their photos may end up with great renown, we usually don’t know about the person who took it (or many of us are too young to remember). Each year many great photographers pass on, so Time magazine’s Mia Tramz has written a tribute in memoriam of those we lost in 2013.
“The photographers we lost this year pursued their craft with rigor and passion,” Tramz wrote. “Nearly all photographed until the very end, which for some came all too soon. They lived their lives with, and to varying degrees through, their cameras.”
Some of these photographers include Bill Eppridge, whose work defined LIFE magazine. While the name might not be recognizable to many, his photographs are, like his most famous picture of Senator Robert Kennedy lying wounded on the floor after being shot. Another is Wayne Miller, who was one of the first American photographers to document Hiroshima, Japan, after the bombing. Saul Leiter, who worked as a fashion photographer for places like Vogue, was also a great street photographer, but was unknown until recently when his street work was published in a book. Jack Mitchell captured some of great artists of the late 20th century, including one of the last photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono before Lennon was killed. The list is long but probably also incomplete, as it focuses mostly on some of the more “important” photographers who worked in media, and helped shape the medium. While the photographs will live forever, it’s a nice tribute to those who took them.
