E-Photo
Issue #170  3/10/2010
 
Portrait Photographer Fabian Bachrach Dies of Pneumonia in Newton, MA

Noted portrait photographer Fabian Bachrach died of pneumonia on Friday February 26, 2010 in Newton, MA. He was 92 and lived in West Newton. Bachrach is probably best known for his portrait of the then Senator John F. Kennedy, an image that became the official presidential photo after Kennedy's election.

Born in Newton on April 9, 1917, Bachrach belonged to a dynasty of commercial portrait photographers that stretches back four generations and over 140 years. It is thought to be the oldest continuously operating photo studio in the world.

Bachrach photographed the famous, among them President Richard M. Nixon, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Joe DiMaggio, Muhammad Ali, Jacques Cousteau, Robert Frost, Buckminster Fuller and even fellow photographer Richard Avedon.