David Rams, one of Playboy’s legendary photographers who shot some of the magazine’s most iconic pictorials, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Rams’ family and some of his former subjects took to social media this week to mourn his passing.
Rams, who was just shy of 63, passed after a four-year fight with cancer, according to friends. He leaves two children, according to his Instagram bio.
David Rams shot for Playboy throughout the 1990s and 2000s, capturing noted names like Tila Tequila and Jenn Sterger, but he was best known for his work with the magazine’s annual College Girls special.
Rams told the Toronto Star in a 2009 interview that the College Girls package was his favorite part of working for the magazine — him, a producer, a photo assistant and a makeup artist on the road for six weeks a year in an RV scouring the country.
“Man, I miss that,” David Rams told the paper. “Not the girls, but I miss my road family.”
Rams, who was originally from Canada, was also hailed for his celebrity portraits in addition to his work for Playboy. Among his more iconic shoots were the actors Morgan Freeman and Woody Harrelson, as seen on his website.
“What is there left to say.. You taught me so much about life, love, friendship, joy, and most importantly art. You lived exactly how every true artist should aim to live. A brilliant shining example of what it means to grab life by the horns, without abandon, and become the art itself,” Vox.the.Visitor, a friend of David Rams, said in an Instagram tribute.
For more on Playboy’s legendary photographers, check out this profile of star Playboy photog Stephen Wayda or this interview with Playboy Plus’s Carianne Older.