Brooks Photography students pay there respects to Paul Liebhardt

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT)  A beloved Brooks Institute and Semester at Sea photography instructor is being remembered.

Paul Liebhardt worked at NASA before taking a photo of Mohammed Ali that ended up in Sports Illustrated.

His students, and friends celebrated his life at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara.

Jonathan Kingston, Robb Winner, Thank Sklark, John Tymitz, Randy Lewis and Dan Patitucci shared their reflections.

After a service full of Liebhardt photos projected on the wall, those in attendance had a chance to choose copies of his books and photos to take home.

Liebhardt liked to say " As long as you are traveling toward the unknown, you're on the right track."

"Paul was such an amazing photographer because he connected with people and he did it so well and he was able to connect with people around the world and a lot of people got into photography because they thought they could hide behind the camera and you can't hide behind the camera there is another person on that side and if you want a great picture you need to foster a relationship with them," said photographer Thann Clark," and I think that is something we need to think about our place in the world and how we relate to other people in the world and I think that is Paul's legacy."

Semester at Sea Vice President for Advancement at the Institute for Shipboard Education Heather Wisniewski was touched by the turnout.

"It has been great to see so many semester at sea folks here just celebrating who Paul is and what semester at sea did for him and so  may here just traveling and experience the world especially experiencing the world through the lens of a camera," said Wisniewski.

Friends continued the celebration of life by sharing stories of Liebhardt's classes at Brooks and his travels on Semester at Sea at Shalhoobs in the Funk Zone

Liebhardt died from complications of a stroke last year.

He was 86 years old.

For more information visit https://semesteratsea.org