Phillip E. Abel has been appointed director of Wedding and Portrait Photographers International. Abel’s background in the photographic industry includes sales with Fujifilm and Oriental Photo, photofinishing with the Photo Factory in San Diego and 12 years as a professional photographer with the U.S. Navy. Most recently, he was field marketing manager for Fujifilm.

Howie Garber received an award in the 2004 BBC Wildlife Magazine/Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition. The Salt Lake City-based photographer was a winner in the Animals in Their Environment category.

Randy Harris, a photographer based in Bellevue, Wash., has been named the grand prizewinner of the Nature’s Best Magazine National Photo Contest. The winning photograph was a close-up of an Alaskan grizzly bear fishing for silver salmon. The award-winning photo can be seen at www.randyharrisphoto.com.

The October 2004 issue of National Geographic features Hawai’i’s Frans Lanting’s coverage of Hawaii’s volcanoes. Lanting also has included his image collection on his website, www.lanting.com. The images, which cover landscapes, wildlife, people and environmental issues from around the world, can be browsed and licensed online for editorial and commercial use.

The Caroline Mytinger Project has selected Jeff Streich, of First Light Films in Portland, Ore., to produce and direct the documentary portion of the project, which will be narrated by actress Lauren Hutton. Streich’s previous television work includes projects for National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC, MTV and CBS’s “Survivor” series.

In 1926, Caroline Mytinger and Margaret Warner set out on a four-year journey to paint portraits of the indigenous peoples of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Photographers Michele Westmorland and Karen Huntt are seeking to recreate their journey. Their expedition is scheduled for May and June 2005.

Canadian photographer Alan Ticheler has been honored by Hidden Beach, a Mexican nudist resort, with its prize for Best Artistic Nude Photo. Ticheler’s past projects include work for “Miami Vice,” the musical group Foreigner, and Sony and Universal MCA music.

John Valls recently completed a series of fashion images for designer Magali Corzo, based in Portland, Ore. The photographer and designer collaborated on the thematic series, shot mostly in industrial locations, for the 2005 spring/summer catalog.

Byron Wolfe, a photography instructor at California State University, Chico, has been named the winner of the 2004 Santa Fe Prize for Photography by the Santa Fe Center for Photography. Wolfe’s photographic diary, “Everyday: A Poetic Diary with Pictures,” can be seen on his website, www.byronwolfe.com. The award includes $5,000 and participation in Review Santa Fe.

SPECIAL HONORS

Larry Levin has been named the Picture Professional of the Year by the American Society of Picture Professionals. The second annual award was presented to Levin at Picturehouse in New York City on Oct. 20, 2004.

A former national president of ASPP, Levin has been involved in the photographic profession his entire life. In the 1990s, he was a major force in organizing the National Press Photographers Association’s Flying Short course around the country.

Among the 142 winners of the annual Nature’s Best International Photography Awards were many members of the North American Nature Photography Association. NANPA photographers from the western United States who were recognized include:
Robert Barber, Colorado, Highly Honored, Creative Digital;
Alice Cahill, California, Winner, Plant Life;
Jorel Cuomo, Colorado, Highly Honored, Youth;
Bob Evans, California, Highly Honored, Wildlife;
Howie Garber, Utah, Highly Honored, People in Nature;
Tim Greyhavens, Washington, Highly Honored, Wildlife, and Highly Honored, Animal Antics;
Zach Holmes, Washington, Highly Honored, Landscape; and
Rob Tilley, Washington, Highly Honored, Landscape.

PASSAGES

Craig Aurness, known for his work in National Geographic, died Dec. 14, 2004, in Panorama City, Calif. Aurness had been undergoing treatment for lung and anemia complications. He was 58.

The adopted son of TV actor James Arness, Aurness grew up on a ranch in Southern California. In the 1970s, he apprenticed with Look magazine photographer Earl Tyson. His first assignment for National Geographic was published in 1978, and he spent the next 10 years traveling around the world, producing seven more National Geographic stories and various books. His work for the magazine received awards for Best Photograph and Best Photo of the Year in the Magazine Pictorial Division from the National Press Photographers Association.

With photographer Charles O’Rear, Aurness founded Westlight stock photo agency, one of the first to focus on the international market. Westlight was sold to Corbis in 1998.

A few years ago, the Aurness family fulfilled a dream to move to the country and raise livestock. They formed Aurness Alpacas, specializing in the buying and selling of suri alpacas. Aurness is survived by his wife, Daphne, his two children, Holly and Brian, and his sister, Holly Morton.

After 20 years as executive director of SF Camerawork, Marnie Gillett died Dec. 3, 2004, following a lengthy battle with breast cancer. During her tenure, Gillett established Camerawork as a launching pad for emerging artists. She also was pivotal in helping raise San Francisco’s profile as an art community leading the exploration of the photographic medium.

Before assuming the leadership of Camerawork, Gillett was curator of exhibitions at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, assistant director of the Light Gallery in New York and a photography instructor at Columbia College in Chicago.

Gillett grew up in White Plains, N.Y. She graduated from the University of New Mexico, and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

In addition to her partner, Clare Wren, she is survived by her mother, Jean Gillett Brookfield, and three brothers, Ezra Gillett III, Jonathan Gillett and Charles Gillett.

Activist and author Susan Sontag died of leukemia on Dec. 28, 2004, at the age of 71. It was Sontag’s third bout with cancer since 1976, a disease that informed much of her writing in the last few decades.

Sontag was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City, in 1933. She attended UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago and, at 17, married sociologist Philip Rieff. Upon the dissolution of the marriage, less than 10 years later, she moved to New York City and taught courses in the philosophy of religion at Columbia University.

Sontag first gained fame in 1964 with her essay, “Notes on Camp.” Her 17 books include novels, critical essays, short stories and portraits of intellectuals. She was strongly interested in the arts, feeling that art was a conduit through which humans could examine themselves and the world around them. In addition to “On Photography,” which received a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1978, Sontag contributed an essay to “Women,” the 1999 collection of portraits by photographer Annie Leibovitz. She also wrote and directed two full-length feature films, “Duet for Cannibals” and “Brother Carl.”

She is survived by her son, David Rieff, and sister, Judith Cohen.