He was my favorite photographer. He inspired many great shooters. His ' Passage ' book is my most prized photo book. Still life or celebrity portrait - he brought it to life and immortalized it. I used to have a friend at the Pace Magill gallery who told me that I was a few feet away from him during his exhibit there for the aforementioned book. That impressed me, it was the work that mattered not his name or how many prints had sold.

2009 has been a year of names on a list of departed. It's important to do something good with your life.