Bad News

It is with dismay that we point you to news of Bruce Fraser's serious illness. Damn it, damn it, damn it....

Bruce is a leading light of digital imaging and a pioneer of this techtonic shift in photography that has taken place over the last ten years. He has earned a place in the modern history of the medium and, although he doesn't know it, he is one of our teachers. This news is a shock and a shame. We're sure all of our contributors here at The Online Photographer join us in sending Bruce and his family our best wishes and highest regards.

Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON, CARL WEESE, OREN GRAD, et al.

Featured Comment by Steve Rosenblum: What a terrible waste of a wonderful person's life. I met Bruce on several occasions at Photoshop seminars. He was kind enough to support the Photoshop Soup-2-Nuts meetings here in Ann Arbor.

I've got to say, as a physician who has watched thousands of people cut down by cancer and heart disease before their time, that there are way too many photographers who smoke and I just wish they would quit. I've noticed that many of the presenters at the Photoshop seminars I have gone to smoke. I'm not sure what it is exactly. Maybe spending hours and hours in a darkroom or working on a computer is just the perfect setup for passing the time with a cigarette. This year I have already lost two friends to lung cancer and a few more are living on very borrowed time. It is such a damn waste of life. I know that it is a free country and people may choose their own "lifestyle" (or poison, as the case may be) but losing these folks makes me furious.

So, if you learned something from Bruce and you smoke, or you know him well enough to have loved him, do yourself, your friends, and your family a huge favor and toss that last pack in the trash. For god's sake, just do it.

(Note: Dr. Rosenblum is a cardiologist who practices in Ann Arbor, Michigan. —Ed.)