'Grunge' fashion photographer Day dies

DENHAM, England, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Corinne Day, whose stark photos of model Kate Moss helped initiate the grunge genre of fashion photography, died Friday in her home in Denham, England.

Susan Babchick, Day's agent, said the cause was a cancerous brain tumor, The New York Times reported Thursday. Day's Web site said she was 45, but public records indicate she was 48.

Day's passion to photograph the most affecting moments in life was evidenced in 1996 when the tumor was discovered and she asked her husband to document her life -- a photo shoot that extended through her treatment and decline, the Times said.

Day had a reputation for honesty in her photos, the Times said. She would not manipulate flaws out of her pictures and favored shooting people in their own environment rather than "pretty" locations.

Day was born in Ealing, a town in west London. As a girl, she said, she enjoyed spending hours in the photo booth at Woolworth's with her friends. Day left school at 16, worked briefly as a trainee in a bank, then flew around the world as an airline courier, then was a model for Guess Jeans. In Japan, she met filmmaker Mark Szaszy, who she later would marry, and who taught her to use a camera.

Day left fashion photography but eventually returned, taking photos of Moss that are part the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

"Diary," published in 2000, documented the lives of everyday people, including those of a single mother struggling to survive.

Day is survived by her husband, her parents and two brothers.