Although he was not a pilot, Robert Cameron, 98, undoubtedly kept the dream of flight alive in those considering pilot training. His 15 coffee table books in the “Above” series published over 40 years sold three million copies. He died Nov. 10.
His books included overhead helicopter views of New York, London, Paris, Mexico City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and four books were devoted to his beloved San Francisco. It captured the perspective known only to pilots.
As recently as August, Cameron was hanging out the door of a helicopter photographing one of his favorite scenes, the twisting switchback turns of Lombard Street in San Francisco. He had just completed a show taken from all the photographs of his life, which is still running at the Metreon shopping center in downtown San Francisco.
On his last flight he had only partial vision in one eye and carried a business card that said, “Robert Cameron, World’s Oldest One-Eyed Aerial Photographer.” Survivors include a girlfriend. His wife died in 2003.
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