Helen Marcus, the photographer best known in the book world for her "evocative black-and-white portraits of literary figures" that were used on many book jackets and otherwise, died on October 1 at age 97, the New York Times reported.
Among her author photos, our favorite is a shot of Toni Morrison. As the Times recounted: "In 1977, Toni Morrison was said to have been dissatisfied with the author photograph on the jacket for one of her early books and was seeking another photographer for her next one. Her publisher's publicist enlisted Ms. Marcus, who invited Ms. Morrison to her spacious apartment and shot four rolls of film of the author sitting at the dining room table.
"When Ms. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 and Swedish postal officials decided to honor her with a stamp, she suggested that they contact Ms. Marcus. Her photograph inspired an etching, which appeared on the stamp (with Ms. Marcus's credit)."
Marcus became a professional photographer only at around age 50, after a career working first for theater director Hal Prince, then at Goodson-Todman Productions, which developed TV game shows. Photography had always been an important hobby for her.
She became a defender of the rights of photographers, particularly concerning copyright and photo credit, efforts that the Times said "were all the more notable because the field at the time was so overwhelmingly dominated by men."
Marcus founded the New York chapter of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (later the American Society of Media Photographers) in 1982 and served as its national president from 1985 to 1990, the Times noted. From 1998 to 2007, she was president of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, which helped independent photographers complete their projects.
Some of us worked with Helen many years ago and always found her to be very nice and very professional--with a good sense of humor.