NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Photographer Michael P. Smith, best known for his engaging photos of New Orleans events, has died in the Louisiana city at the age of 71, his peers say.
Bruce Raeburn, who served alongside Smith creating the Tulane University jazz archive, said Smith was among the first photographers to focus on jazz and cultural events in New Orleans that had been accepted as commonplace, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Saturday.
"He paid attention when many locals took that culture for granted or ignored it," said Raeburn, who served as the curator for the archive.
Steven Maklansky, a former New Orleans Museum of Art curator of photographs, remembered Smith, who died Friday of two diseases that had decimated his nervous system, as a man dedicated to accurately capturing the city's culture.
"I don't think there's another photographer who has more sensitively documented very significant aspects of the second half of 20th century New Orleans culture," he told The Times-Picayune.
The newspaper said Smith is survived by his companion, Karen Louise Snyder, two daughters, two grandchildren and a brother.
