Kathy Willens, pathbreaking Associated Press photographer who captured sports and more, dies at 74

Kathy Willens, a pathbreaking photojournalist who helped cement women’s place behind the lens everywhere from the Super Bowl to war-torn Somalia during her nearly 45-year career at The Associated Press, died Tuesday. She was 74.

Willens died at her Brooklyn home of ovarian cancer, diagnosed shortly after her 2021 retirement, her nephew Ben Willens said.

A giving colleague but fierce competitor who brooked no interference between her and a picture, Willens was among the AP’s first female staff photographers. She went on to shoot more than 90,000 images — of presidents and Pope John Paul II, protests and war, sports triumphs and human tragedy.