American photographer LeRoy Grannis, whose images of California surfers in the 1960s popularised the sport and culture, has died at the age of 93, his son told the Los Angeles Times. Grannis, considered "the godfather" of surf photography, died Thursday of natural causes at a nursing facility in Torrance, 20 miles south of Los Angeles, John Grannis said.
LeRoy Grannis, with his splendid black and white images, helped popularise the sport and the laid-back style of living in southern California in the 1960s and 70s. "There's surfing royalty, and he was one of the kings," his son told the newspaper. "He inspired so many big-name photographers that consider him their mentor." Journalist Steve Barilotti wrote in the introduction of a 2006 book of Grannis's work that his photographs "caught surfing at a critical juncture between cult and culture."
Grannis was "documenting surfing's rapid evolution into an iconic lifestyle," Barilotti wrote. "His photos captured the real thing, providing a bridge between the world of Beach Boy lyrics and the reality of the Southern California beach scene." Born in 1917 in a suburb of Los Angeles, Grannis climbed on a surfboard for the first time at 14, and was a lifelong surfer, mainly in California and Hawaii. He was employed by the telephone company Pacific Bell for many years and turned to pphotography as a way to relax His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
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