Photographer Tom Story uploaded this image of Associated Press photographer Lenny Ignezi over the weekend as as memory to the AP staffer who has died aged 74. Tom has kindly allowed PAN to run the image and his memory to Lenny:
Lenny Ignezi, retired Associated Press photographer (38 years with the AP) and the Godfather of San Diego photojournalism passed away this weekend.
He was a legendary photographer and a true gentleman.
I met first met Lenny in the late 1970s when he was in Arizona covering spring training and made this photo (with a Polaroid SX-70) of him at Francisco Grande in Casa Grande where the San Francisco Giants trained.
He helped me out a few times over my career at the Arizona Republic when I was in California on assignment.
He and his staff would process my film, make prints and transmit them back to the paper. A great teacher and story teller as well as a true professional.
R.I.P.
Watch a wonderful film about Lenny from the late Tim Mantoani, himself an excellent photographer.
• Lenny’s home town newspaper has this obituary to him The San Diego Union-Tribune
• This on Lenny from an article last year in the Times of San Diego