Remembering Photographer David Armstrong (1954—2014)

Photographer David Armstrong died Sunday after a battle with liver cancer. He was 60. Best known for his intimate photographs of young men and later for his soft focus landscapes, his work encompassed both the art and fashion worlds.

Armstrong was a close friend of artists Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe and Jack Pierson and is broadly recognized as having influenced a generation of young photographers, including Ryan McGinley.

He was included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and his work appeared in Paris Vogue, Japanese Vogue, GQ and Arena Homme+ among many others.

“Photographing is like a seduction,” Armstrong said in a 2012 New York magazine interview, “it’s intimate when you’re alone with them.”

“I do believe David’s portraits will ultimately stand with the greatest ever created, ” Jack Pierson told TIME. “He was an artist and humanist, arresting unutterably intimate moments with light.”

“What makes his work sublime is that it is so clearly a manifestation of his time and milieu. Yet in direct conversation with the ages,” he said.

“Our friendship was long and it was a love story and a marriage of sorts, ” said friend and Vogue West Coast Director Lisa Love. “He made me smarter and I sometimes made him tidier.”

“He finally fell fast asleep with a big smile on his face surrounded by his friends,” she continued.

David Armstrong is survived my his mother and two brothers.

Richard Conway is reporter/producer for TIME LightBox