Lawrence Bigman, known as Larry, died July 6 in Danbury, Conn. after a brief hospice stay, the result of a sudden stroke. He was 93.

A longtime resident of Brookfield, Conn., Bigman worked for much of his life in New York City as a studio, street, and fashion photographer and was a master printer for many other photographers, including pioneering modernist Imogen Cunningham. He printed some of NASA’s first public images of Mars from the Viking mission in the 1970s. Toward the end of his career he worked at Photronics, Inc in Brookfield.

Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn during the Great Depression, Bigman was raised by a single mother and two sisters who gave him wide latitude to explore the city on his own. He fell in love with the main branch of the New York Public Library where he fed a hungry curiosity about the world. He graduated two years early from high school.

In 1953 he was drafted and served with the US Army Signal Corps in Korea in the immediate aftermath of the Korean War. Following his service, he returned to New York and continued his photography career, interspersing work with months-long solo motorcycle trips across the US, camping, rock climbing, and photographing the American West. He toured Europe by motorcycle as well, lingering in Switzerland where he studied mountaineering and summited the Matterhorn.

In 1969 he met Carol Bigman of New Hartford, N.Y., and took her to the New York Auto Show for eight hours on their first date. As payback, she brought him to a Jimi Hendrix concert at Madison Square Garden, kicking off a 57-year union defined by a sense of play, banter, and a shared focus on meaningful experiences. They eloped and married in June, 1969, and headed west in their Volkswagen Beetle, hiking and rock climbing as a honeymoon. When they returned to New York months later, they could barely pay the toll for the George Washington Bridge.

They settled in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and in March, 1970, had a son, Dan. Over the next decade they lived in Brooklyn, then Staten Island, before moving to Brookfield in 1981. There, they cultivated a tight circle of neighborhood friends, especially the Luizzi family, with whom they traveled extensively and celebrated the big milestones in life. Bigman remained a passionate lifelong learner, outdoorsman, and athlete, hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, playing tennis and — until the age of 89 — riding motorcycles. He loved teaching reading to at-risk kids in Danbury, travel, Broadway, cabaret, busy restaurants, hotel lobbies, art, national parks, mountains, and above all else, his family. He disliked mowing the lawn.

He is survived by his wife, Carol, as well as his son, Dan, daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Harris, and granddaughter, Emily, of Katonah, N.Y.

Dan once asked him how he always remained so even-keeled, given all he’d seen in life. “It’s simple,” he said. “If you want to be happy, you need someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.” It was a good formula, and he lived by it.

Calling hours: Monday, July 20 from 4-7 pm at Honan Funeral Home in Newtown, Conn. with a remembrance ceremony at 6 pm.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Danbury Regional Hospice (regionalhospicect.org) or the Appalachian Mountain Club (outdoors.org).

The Newtown Bee July 10, 2026