NEW YORK, NY.- Harold Feinstein, master photographer and renowned teacher, died in his home on Saturday, June 20, 2015. His wife, Judith Thompson, was at his side.

Feinstein was born in Coney Island Hospital in 1931 of Jewish immigrant parents. He began photographing in 1946 at the age of 15 by borrowing a Rolleiflex from a neighbor and heading to Coney Island. Certain of his calling as an artist, he dropped out of school at the age of 16 and became the youngest member of the historic Photo League in 1949.

By the time he was 19, Edward Steichen, an early supporter, had purchased his work for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art making him the youngest photographer to be so honored.

The first important opportunity to show his work came in 1954 as part of a group show at The Whitney Museum and was followed by a group show at the Museum of Modern Art and solo shows at the George Eastman House (1957) and the legendary Limelight Gallery (1958).

When he was just 27, Jacob Deschin, the photo writer for The New York Times wrote: "Feinstein's work is the new pictorialism, the refinement of the craft as a technically perfected language, not as an end in itself...but as the eloquent vehicle of an individual's need to say something worthwhile in pictures." (November 2, 1958)

Until the turn of the century he was best known for his six-decade love affair with Coney Island, which he began photographing at the age of 15.

In a review of his one man show at the International Center of Photography in 1990, A.D. Coleman wrote: "Here is New York small camera school at its best; humanistic, engaging, almost intrusive...this is the work of a man who loves people, takes unalloyed pleasure in seeing them enjoy themselves, likes to get close to them -- and, by rendering their physicality in tactile, nuanced prints, enmeshes the viewer in the sensual, material world his 'subjects' occupy." A.D. Coleman, New York Observer, October 1, 1990.

While his Coney Island work has been much celebrated, Feinstein's breadth and exposure is far greater. His photographs from the Korean War, taken from the perspective of a draftee (he served two years in the army from 1952-53), offer an intimate look at the daily life of young conscripts and Korean civilians.

In addition, he has a large collection of classic street photography, nudes, portraits and still life. His first black and white monograph, Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective was published by Nazraeli Press to critical acclaim in 2013.

Writing for the retrospective, Howard Greenberg of the Howard Greenberg Gallery said of Feinstein's work: "His images, at once joyous and engaging, appear to be made from within the photograph and not from a customary distance. They are alive and allow the viewer a privileged place in his world. All this, while displaying a mastery of light, composition, the moment; elements which make good photographs, great. Feinstein occupies a high ground in the pantheon of street photography."

His greatest innovation was to come in 1999 when he embraced digital photography, resulting in the publication of seven color books by Little Brown. Beginning with his acclaimed One Hundred Flowers, the books feature highly detailed portraits of nature's wonders including flowers, fruits, vegetables, seashells and butterflies. Using his Epson scanner as a camera allowed for both front lighting and a very shallow depth of field. Now called scanography, there was no such term when Feinstein began.

In addition to his reputation as an artist, Feinstein, who had taken one class from Photo League founder, Sid Grossman, was a renowned teacher. He left New York before he was thirty to accept a teaching fellowship at the newly opened Annenberg School of Communications. He taught continually from his studio and in residence at The Maryland Art Institute, The Philadelphia Museum School, and The School of Visual Arts, New York, among other institutions.

In recent years, Feinstein's earlier black and white work has been reintroduced to the public with exhibits that include a two-person show with the posthumous photography phenomenon Vivian Maier, View From the Streets: Harold Feinstein & Vivian Maier at the Lumière Gallery in Atlanta, November 15 - February 28, 2015; a solo exhibition at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography in Moscow, co-sponsored by Harper's Bazaar, Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective, September 12 - October 27, 2014, and his current exhibition Harold Feinstein: Master Photographer that will be on view through August 2015 at Lumière Atlanta. Up-coming shows include exhibitions at The Leica Gallery Los Angeles in September 2015, and at Panopticon Gallery in Boston (date to be announced in 2016), among other venues. Two documentaries about his life and work are currently in progress.

Harold Feinstein had a profound appreciation for the preciousness of each moment and encouraged all who knew him to say "yes" to the beauty of everyday life. His best known expression "when your mouth drops open, click the shutter" defines the sense of awe that he found in the smallest details of life.

Feinstein lived in Merrimac, MA. He is survived by his wife, Judith Thompson and his son, Gjon Feinstein, who lives in Santa Cruz, CA.