Hyman 'Hy' Peskin was born on November 5, 1915 in Brooklyn New York, Hy died on June 2, 2005 in Herzliyya, Israel. The life of Hy Peskin is truly Hollywood material. Born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Hy's first job was a newspaper boy, which helped save his parents in the Depression when his father, a tailor, lost his job. Hy then became a journalist at the New York Daily Mirror and then became a photographer because it paid more.

Unlike other photographers, he took photographs from unusual places and angles and set a new standard in photography. He would go down to the sidelines or on to the roof to get more interesting shots while other photographers would huddle in the press box.

In his early years he was first noticed for the photographs he took of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Hy was quoted as saying, "I helped make the Dodgers famous and they helped make me"�.

Hy shot freelance pictures also for Time, Life and Look magazines. For almost ten years Hy traveled the globe shooting photographs at the Olympics, the World Series, Football championships and boxing matches. Hy Peskin typically used a Speed Graphic or a Rolleiflex. The artistic side of Hy Peskin can be seen in all his pictures. His style was unique, using unusual angles, shapes and light combined with an eye for detail, his use of speed, his sense of timing and his desire for perfection in motion and shape.

Using advances in film speeds and lighting, Hy Peskin was credited with taking the first action sports photography in color. This led his appointment as the first staff photographer for Sports Illustrated and he had 42 of his photographs on the front page of Sports Illustrated over his career. His picture of Ben Hogan playing a 1 iron to the green at the 72nd hole of the 1950 US Open was ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the greatest sports photographs of the twentieth century. Hy's photography covered all the major sports and many of his photographs are now regarded as classics. His silhouetted picture of boxer Carmen Basillo jumping into the arms of his cornerman after leveling Tony DeMarco at the smoke-filled Boston Garden is also rated as one of the greatest photographs of the twentieth century. Hy shot photographs of all the great sports personalities of the 40's, 50's and 60's.

However it was not just sports for which Hy Peskin became famous. His J. F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier photographs helped launch the Kennedy historical legacy. Hy was asked to come to the Kennedy residence for the 4th of July weekend in 1953. The photographs taken that weekend are now world famous and helped launch the career of young John F Kennedy and the legend that grew around the Kennedy story. In addition to sports personalities and the Kennedy family, Hy also shot magazine feature photos of writer William Faulkner, President Dwight D Eisenhower, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Hy's artistic talent is evident in all his photographs but much of his personal artwork has never been seen before and is now available on our site. In between assignments Hy would, for his own pleasure, take artistic shots that are truly amazing. These incredible photos have never been released to the public before now.

In 1964 Hy Peskin changed his name to Brian Blaine Reynolds to pursue a philanthropic venture and founded the American Academy of Achievement which is now a hugely successful organization known as the Academy of Achievement. He changed his name to open a new and neutral identity and brought together a variety of leaders from a number of fields such as Elizabeth Taylor, Elie Wiesel, Linus Pauling, Johnny Cash, and Willie Mays among dozens of others to meet together, receive awards and mingle with top high school students. Hy initially funded the entire enterprise out of his earnings from his photography and later got corporate donations and sold tickets to the glittering events. The Academy of Achievement soon became a very successful event attracting celebrities, Nobel prize winners and leading politicians. Hy's wife and children helped him run the organization and by 1985 Hy's then youngest son, Wayne, was running the organization.

After years of not touching a camera Hy came out of retirement to take photographs at several sporting events, but these were very rare occurrences. In 2002 he was featured in an HBO documentary on sports photographers. By then his worlds had sadly almost completely diverged and those who knew him as Brian Reynolds had not heard of Hy Peskin and vice versa. Hy had embarked on two careers and had produced the best of the best in each.

Hy has been described as a gruff, abrasive and a tough, scrappy man. Like most creative geniuses, he lived life to the fullest and left a legacy of greatness behind.

Hy Peskin aka Brian Blaine Reynolds died in Israel in 2005 with his second wife Adriana and their two sons Jeremy and Preston by his side.