We are incredibly saddened by the passing of Elise Amendola on Thursday. She was a fixture in New England photojournalism community for decades and everyone who knew her remembers her kindness. We send our deepest condolences to her family and friends.
There are obituaries at Legacy.com and published by the AP, reproduced in part below:
Associated Press photographer Elise Amendola, who documented decades of sports and news, dies at 70
by Caleb Jones / AP, May 12, 2023.
Renowned Associated Press photojournalist Elise Amendola — a determined, joyous and patient journalist who masterfully photographed pivotal global news and sporting events spanning decades — has died. She was 70.
Amendola, who recently retired from the AP, died Thursday at her home in North Andover, Massachusetts, after a 13-year battle with ovarian cancer, her wife and fellow photographer Mary Schwalm said Friday.
Amendola documented many important moments in history, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Boston Marathon bombing, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, U.S. presidential campaigns, and many Super Bowls, Olympics, World Series and other major sporting events.
“I owe the AP for our beautiful life,” Schwalm told the AP Friday. “I first met Elise when I was a photo runner at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. By Athens in 2004, I was a staff photo editor on the sports desk and we’d become friends. I had the pleasure to edit her photos ... It was so easy, she never missed.”
Schwalm said Elise, who loved basketball, preferred to not have a service or flowers.
“She’d love for you to go to the courts, and shoot a basketball from the baseline, her best midrange jump shot,” Shwalm said in an email to the AP. “Or make an assist in some way, Elise loved to make a good pass.”
