Photographer William Claxton (pictured at left) died from complications of congestive heart failure on Saturday in Los Angeles at the age of 80. Best known for his photographs of jazz musicians such as Chet Baker and Duke Ellington, Pasadena-born Claxton also took iconic fashion photos of his wife, actress and model Peggy Moffitt, dressed (or barely dressed, as the case often was) in the designs of Rudi Gernreich.

According to Claxton's website, his career began as a hobby when, during his studies at UCLA, he began toting a "4x5 Speed Graphic, obsolete even then" to L.A. jazz clubs. At a show in 1952, he met Dick Bock, who soon hired Claxton as art director, house photographer, and partner in his nascent Pacific Jazz record label. "Most of the jazz photography before me showed sweaty musicians with shiny faces in dark, smoky little bars," Claxton once said. "That was jazz to most people, but being on the West Coast, I wanted to bring out the fact that the musicians here were living in such a health conscious environment. So I purposely put them on the beach or in the mountains or on the road in their convertibles."