LOS ANGELES -- Bunny Yeager, an iconic pin-up photographer best known for her work with Bettie Page and Playboy magazine, died Sunday at a nursing facility in North Miami. She was 85.
The cause was heart failure, her agent Ed Christin told the L.A. Times.
Yeager started out as a model in Miami before beginning her career behind the camera. The Wilkinsburg, Pa., native met Bettie Page in 1954 and along with photographer Irving Klaw, played a role in helping to make Page famous, particularly with her photos in Playboy magazine, according to a tribute by Sssh.com.
Yeager became known for pin-up photography and fashion and also is credited with helping to popularize the bikini. In recent years, along with renewed interest in Page, who died in 2008, there was newfound appreciation for Yeager's photography, reports said. Her work was the subject of several gallery and museum shows, including one exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in 2010.
She published about a dozen books and her work has been displayed in art galleries across the world.
To read the full tribute, click here.
