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Associated Press photographer Elise Amendola, who documented decades of sports and news, dies at 70

Text by Caleb Jones | Photos by Elise Amendola

Renowned Associated Press photojournalist Elise Amendola — a determined, joyous and patient journalist who masterfully photographed pivotal global news and sporting events spanning decades — has died. She was 70.

Amendola, who recently retired from the AP, died Thursday, May 11, 2023, at her home in North Andover, Massachusetts, after a 13-year battle with ovarian cancer, her wife and fellow photographer Mary Schwalm said Friday.

Amendola documented many important moments in history, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Boston Marathon bombing, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, U.S. presidential campaigns, and many Super Bowls, Olympics, World Series and other major sporting events.

Electric Time Co. employee Walter Rodriguez cleans the face of an 84-inch Wegman clock at the plant in Medfield, Mass., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

“I owe the AP for our beautiful life,” Schwalm told the AP Friday. “I first met Elise when I was a photo runner at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. By Athens in 2004, I was a staff photo editor on the sports desk and we’d become friends. I had the pleasure to edit her photos ... It was so easy, she never missed.”

The two worked together for years — Schwalm in New York and Amendola in Boston, often collaborating on assignments.

In the fall of 2006, Schwalm said she left her photo editing position in New York to live with Amendola in North Andover. “Seventeen years of pure joy, 11 of them as her wife,” she said. “I am heart broken.”

Her longtime friend and teammate, fellow Boston photographer Charles Krupa, described one of his favorite photographs that Amendola made when the two were on assignment together covering golf.

Davis Love had just won the PGA championship in 1997.

“After a hard week of work in the rain,” Krupa remembered, “Love tipping his cap to the crowd with a panoramic rainbow tying the moment together as one.”

“I knew she had the angle on it, and when we were done with the day she absolutely nailed that picture. She nailed pictures like that throughout her career,” Krupa said. “(Love) found his pot of gold that day, and Elise did too.”

A rainbow soars above Davis Love III, of Sea Island, Ga., after he won the PGA Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Sunday, August 17, 1997. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Amendola started her career with the AP wire service as a freelancer in the early 1980s before being hired onto staff in 1983. She retired in 2021. She was born in New York and was a graduate of Tufts University.

“The word legend is often overused, but in this case, it’s not big enough,” said Associated Press Director of Photography David Ake in a note to staff. “She was a superior photographer but, more importantly, a fabulous person.”

Ake remembered his days “chasing candidates” around New Hampshire with Amendola.

“Her coverage of the first Clinton presidential campaign should be a textbook,” Ake said. “It didn’t matter how cold, hot, wet, or miserable an assignment was; Elise never caved and stuck with it until a picture was made. If I had to describe what drove that determination, I would say ‘joy.’”

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., grimaces as Helen Matta of New Burn, N.C. kisses her while she snaps their picture at a rally in Greenville, N.C. Monday, May 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

AP business photo editor Peter Morgan first met Amendola at the Boston bureau around 1980, when she brought in tennis photos for consideration. Morgan was trying to get started as a stringer at the time, and worked with her on dozens of assignments over the following decades.

“Elise was one of the greats — not just as a photographer, but as a person,” Morgan said. “It was a joy to know you would be working on the same assignment – her presence guaranteed good photos and good company.”

AP photographer Julie Jacobson said she admired Amendola and her work before the two ever met, when she was still working for a newspaper in the 1990s.

“There weren’t a lot of women photographers who shot sports back then,” Jacobson said. “But she did, was good at it and she was one of a few whose bar I looked to when setting my own goals.”

Legendary Boston Celtics coach and president Red Auerbach leans back in his chair and puffs a cigar while watching team practice at Hellenic College in Brookline, Mass., May 23, 1988. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Then Jacobson was hired as a staff photographer at the AP, and said she was “star struck” when she met Amendola.

“Meeting Elise for the first time at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002 was really exciting for me,” she said. “We would end up working together multiple times at various events through the next 19 years or so, mostly sporting events. And I was always star struck.”

Jacobson said Amendola was the “the epitome of team player, happy to shoot anywhere and share knowledge with the rest of the crew.”

More importantly, she said, Amendola treated everyone with respect. “As good as she was, no one was beneath her,” Jacobson said.

Bill Sikes, a retired Boston AP photo editor, recalled a moment after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.

“Elise and her longtime teammate Charlie Krupa slept in the lobby of the Westin Hotel overnight so not to be forced outside the police perimeter that had been set up around the site,” Sikes said. “The next morning, Elise went to the upper floors of the hotel and knocked on doors till she found a room that provided a view of both bombing sites. She rented that room so all AP platforms had that vantage point for the remainder of the week.”

Two men in hazardous materials suits put numbers on the shattered glass and debris as they investigate the scene at the first bombing on Boylston Street in Boston Tuesday, April 16, 2013 near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, a day after two blasts killed three and injured over 170 people. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Remembering her dedication to the craft, Sikes said, “There was never a doubt she would deliver compelling photos from every type of assignment, no matter the challenges.”

Amy Sancetta, a fellow retired AP photographer, remembered her friend on Friday.

“She fought her illness with the same tenacity, courage and good nature that she carried in all aspects of her life,” Sancetta said. “Elise never, ever gave up: not climbing the hill on 18 at Augusta, not freezing all day at the base of an Olympic ski mountain, and not with cancer. Working, playing hoops, enjoying her life and her friends and her beloved wife Mary Schwalm, Elise showed her joyous spirit and firm determination.”

Schwalm said Elise, who loved basketball, preferred to not have a service or flowers.

“She’d love for you to go to the courts, and shoot a basketball from the baseline, her best midrange jump shot,” Shwalm said in an email to the AP. “Or make an assist in some way, Elise loved to make a good pass.”


Here is a gallery looking back at her work for AP through the years:

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Mike Dukakis gives Larissa Srhyroky, 14-months, a kiss as he campaigned, Sunday, Sept. 27, 1982, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Presidential hopefuls, Sen. John Glenn, left, former Sen. George McGovern, center, and former Vice-President Walter Mondale, right, pause for photographers after debating the nuclear arms issue at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 13, 1983. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) loses the ball after being brought down by Oakland Raiders' Charles Woodson, right, while Greg Biekert (54) moves to recover the ball in the fourth quarter of their AFC Division Playoff game in Foxboro, Mass., Saturday night, Jan. 19, 2002. The play was appealed, and the Patriots retained possession. The Patriots went on to win, 16-13, in overtime. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial that he said could contain anthrax as he presents evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs to the United Nations Security Council Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Phil Mickelson celebrates after winning the Masters golf tournament with a nine-under-par at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Sunday, April 11, 2004. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Kathleen Clementson, 62, left, and Suzanne Nightingale, 49, of Cape Coral, Fla., wade out into the ocean and share a private moment after they were pronounced as married at their wedding ceremony on Saint's Landing Beach in Brewster, Mass. Thursday, May 20, 2004 during the first week of state-sanctioned gay marriage in America. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., views the presidential carvings at Mount Rushmore, near Keystone, S.D., Wednesday, May 28, 2008, as she campaigns in South Dakota. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Spectators hold up photos of Madonna as New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez waits in the on-deck circle during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, July 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts to winning a point against Fernando Gonzalez of Chile during their Gold medal singles tennis match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Beyonce, left, sings as President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Fans react as Toronto Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas dives over the wall to catch a foul pop by Boston Red Sox's George Kottaras during the seventh inning in a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Fireworks soar over the Fenway Park press box before the opening game of the baseball season between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees Sunday, April 4, 2010, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Boston Celtics Ray Allen celebrates after hitting a 3-pointer against the Los Angeles Lakers to break the NBA record for 3-point baskets, during the first quarter of a basketball game in Boston on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. Allen passed the mark held by Reggie Miller. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (30) takes a shot at Vancouver Canucks left wing Alex Burrows (14) as Boston Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg (44) pulls Burrows back late in the game during Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup finals, Wednesday, June 8, 2011, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Serena Williams, right, and Venus Williams of the United States celebrate their victory against Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic in the gold medal women's doubles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman (11) scores a touchdown against Denver Broncos strong safety Mike Adams (20) and defensive end Shaun Phillips (90) in the third quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Holding American flags, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman, left, bumps fists with Carlos Arredondo near the finish line of the the 118th Boston Marathon, Monday, April 21, 2014, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

People work to shovel snow-covered cars out in Boston's Charlestown section, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, one day after a blizzard dumped about two feet of snow in the city. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Philadelphia 76ers guard Gerald Henderson (12) falls over after trying to block a shot by Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart (36) in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady holds a Super Bowl trophy during a rally Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, in Boston, to celebrate Sunday's 34-28 win over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL Super Bowl 51 football game in Houston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

New York Yankees catcher Rob Brantly stretches for the tag but Boston Red Sox's Alex Verdugo is safe at home on a sacrifice fly by Enrique Hernandez during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)


Text from AP News story, Associated Press photographer Elise Amendola, who documented decades of sports and news, dies at 70, by Caleb Jones

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