It is with great sadness that we announce the death of photographer Gianni Giansanti. Giansanti passed away on March 18, 2009 at the age of 53 following a long illness.

Known for his photographs of Pope John Paul II – whose papacy he covered from beginning to end – Giansanti had his work featured on a total of three Time magazine covers and covered a wide variety of stories including famine in Africa, designer Yves Saint-Laurent, the Olympic Games, Formula 1 racing, and many other in-depth subjects and portraits. His first break came when, as a young news photographer, he was the only one to photograph Red Brigade kidnap victim former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, dead in the trunk of a car. The image garnered him his first Time cover and he subsequently joined the Sygma agency, where he stayed on for some 20 years. Since 2002 he has been represented by Grazia Neri and Polaris Images.

To see more of Giansanti's work, please visit Time magazine.

Photographer Giani Giansanti in 2008.

Giansanti with Pope John Paul II in 1983 (L) and 2004 (R).