See a beautiful tribute to photographer Brian Putnam

I think a lot of people who knew Brian Putnam are very sad and upset that the well-known photographer ended his life on December 23.

I knew Brian and we had talked about his depression and his drinking in the past. I had given him some advice and at one point a referral to someone I hoped could help him out.

But I had not socialized on a one-on-one basis with him since the day in April 2011 when we met at The Abbey in West Hollywood to have a toast to Elizabeth Taylor, under her portrait, the week that she died.

But I still saw Brian here and there at various events and would still get occasional emails from him with photos from this or that event. The last email came on November 12 and it was this photo of Days of Our Lives star Chandler Massey at the West Hollywood Auto Show.

I hadn’t used the photo and forgot about it until a few days ago when I was doing an email purge – and there it was.

It served as a reminder of how prolific Brian was and how hard he worked over the years to be at LGBT events. I remember being next to him at so many events and chattering away.

So this video – shown last night at a Musical Mondays memorial at Eleven – is a really fitting tribute because it shows you what a contribution Brian made to so many lives by being there with his camera, by knowing who was who and what was what and making sure it got out there.

It was often a thankless task, not much money in it, but I know he loved doing it.

(Thanks to Chad Darnell for getting the video to me!)