Ellen Berman, a gifted and much-respected fine-art photographer and graphic designer based in West Hollywood, California, died at UCLA Hospital in Westwood on March 1, 2025.
Family and loved ones were with Berman at her bedside, and songs by The Beatles, her favorite band, were playing in the background. She was 71 and had been battling cancer for almost six years.
Multimedia artist and longtime Berman friend David Connelly and other close friends are planning a private gathering in September to celebrate her life. September 20 would have been her 72nd birthday.
Berman’s creative spirit, artistic eye, engaging personality, and proximity to the Los Angeles-Hollywood-Beverly Hills entertainment vortex were keys to her career in media, which spanned more than half a century.
For starters, Berman was one of the few photographers who shot opening night at The Roxy on the Sunset Strip on September 20, 1973, with Neil Young as the headliner – on her 20th birthday.
Around the same time, she photographed party pals Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon and visited John Lennon at the storied beach house in Santa Monica where he stayed during part of his “lost weekend” separated from Yoko Ono in 1974.
Berman’s earlier assignments as a rock and roll photographer included shooting groups like The Kinks and The Monkees.
Among her later subjects was legendary comedian Groucho Marx. Berman was a mensch who could put anyone at ease, even the notoriously irascible movie star and TV host in his later years.
Her photos appeared in myriad books and periodicals, including Time, Rolling Stone, and L.A. magazine, as well as on album covers, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“What do Dictators, Presidents, International Royalty, ‘A List’ Movie Stars and Middle America have in common?” Berman wrote there. “They all make up part of the colorful spectrum of individuals who have been my clientele throughout my professional work experience … and have greatly shaped my strong professional work ethos of always striving to attain the highest standards.”
Born in Los Angeles on September 20, 1953, Berman attended UCLA and earned her BFA in Photography from the renowned ArtCenter College of Design.
A longtime resident of West Hollywood, Berman lived walking distance from frequent haunts like the Troubadour, The Roxy, and The Whisky, and a short drive from the Morrison Hotel Gallery at the Sunset Marquis, the Mr. Musichead Gallery further east on Sunset, and the Leica Gallery on Beverly Boulevard. She orbited easily in the L.A. photography, art, design, fashion, and music universes.
From 1987 to 2000, Berman was assistant manager and a customer service rep for prestigious retailer Hammacher Schlemmer on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Clients included “Michael Jackson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Steven Spielberg, entertainment industry’s top echelon, [and] world leaders such as President Reagan along with international notables,” according to her profile.
From 2002 to 2009, Berman was a content and visual communication design specialist for The Good Life, where her clients included Charlize Theron, Smokey Robinson, Halle Berry, Eva Longoria, Dwight Yoakam, and John Travolta.
Since 2010, she had been a communications designer and photographer for PublicEyeworks, “providing clients with advice, development, and creative direction for constructing and integrating ideas, information, and visual elements into graphic social communication pieces and photography.”
Among Berman’s professional accolades is the Certificate of Excellence Communication Graphics Award issued by AIGA (the American Institute of Graphic Arts, associated with ArtCenter College of Design).
In 1987, Berman curated and presented most of the iconic exhibition prints for the show “Masters of Starlight: Photographers in Hollywood” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The exhibit featured classic images by 43 photographers shot over the previous 60 years, as documented in the 1988 book of the same title authored by David Fahey and Linda Rich.
More recently, starting in 2013, Berman served as Festival Assistant to the Theater Operations Team for the TCM Turner Classic Film Festival in Hollywood each spring for several years.
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A Decade of Friendship with Ellen Berman
“Ellen came to one of my art openings, just about 10 years ago now, and she just loved my work and wanted to photograph me with the work,” David Connelly said.
He described himself as a multimedia artist, primarily a sculptor who sculpts out of recycled cardboard and makes installations out of the sculptures. Some of the installations also include live performances.
“We got to talking about art and photography and just had so much in common that we just sparked an immediate friendship,” said Connelly, also a West Hollywood resident. “She was so supportive of me and my work throughout the years. She used to say, ‘I’m your fairy godmother,’ and that kind of became what I referred as our relationship. She was a real booster who really believed in my work and in me as an artist.”
That belief went both ways, as Connelly also encouraged Berman’s artistic pursuits. Now, at her behest, he’s on a mission to properly preserve and curate her photo archive, which she had not been able to keep up due to her recurring illness.
“At the moment, I’m organizing and cataloging everything,” Connelly said. “My goal is to get her the show she never got and the book she never got in her lifetime.”
A Mini-Gallery of Ellen Berman’s Photography
The sample of photographs by Ellen Berman below illustrates the range of her work. More details about these images will be added when they become available.
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Ellen Berman: On the Scene in Hollywood
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Berman and Peeples’ First Encounter
Ellen Berman and this writer-producer-photojournalist met at the Alex Theater in Glendale in March 2017, in the wings at stage right while shooting the Wild Honey Foundation salute to The Band. Fellow photographer and longtime Berman friend Harold Sherrick introduced us.
The three of us stood two feet behind Garth Hudson as he performed a stunning solo piano piece (“Just jamming,” as he told me backstage after the show) I was fortunate to capture on video.
Later, talking backstage, Ellen and I hit it off right away. She was friendly, funny, sharp, and creative. We discovered we had numerous mutual friends and acquaintances. Over the next few years she and I crossed paths often at various shows and exhibits, and it was always a delight to see her, catch up, and swap stories.
And her hats were always way cooler than my rack of nerdy baseball caps.
On January 28, 2018, Ellen, Harold, Hugh Brown (a former art Director at Rhino Entertainment and a colleague of mine there in the 1990s), and I were among the shooters attending our friend Neal Preston‘s Leica Gallery event in WeHo, celebrating the publication of his book “Exhausted & Exhilarated” and providing immoral support.
As a lensman with a good editorial eye but not too much technical expertise, and someone who’s collaborated with many excellent music, news, and fine art photographers in a 50-year media career starting in 1975, I have huge respect for each of these characters.
Berman’s Cancer Diagnosis, Help From Friends
On May 20, 2019, Ellen’s doctors diagnosed a rare form of cancer, finding a high-grade serious endometrial adenocarcinoma in her right lung. Over the next five years, she endured treatments, remissions, and recurrences with grace and an indomitable spirit, even as she was unable to work or get out much socially.
In April 2022, as Ellen was fighting a recurrence, Connelly set up a GoFundMe page, abetted by her writer Stanley Booth (who died December 19, 2024) and singer-songwriter-musician Syd Straw, also longtime friends and supporters.
According to info on the page, this type of recurrence happens in only 10 percent of women.
“I had asked Ellen when she first got sick, ‘Let me do a GoFundMe for you,” Connelly told me. “She was hesitant. She didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to ask people for money. But when she had this recurrence, and she really couldn’t work, so she said, ‘Okay, will you do that for me?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’
“She was still living at home in West Hollywood at the time,” he said. “For the next couple of years, other than hospital stays, she lived at home until the last few months.”
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Roxy 50th Anniversary Celebration at Grammy Museum
During one period of remission in fall 2023, Ellen invited me to be her plus-one at The Roxy’s invitation-only 50th anniversary event at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles on September 17.
A couple of her photos from the Sunset Strip nightclub’s opening night on September 20, 1973, were among the dozens of historic images displayed on the walls upstairs, outside the Clive Davis Theatre, so she was among the invitees and felt strong enough to make it.
Our friend Harold Sherrick was Berman’s first choice to accompany her, but he had recently moved to the East Coast and wouldn’t be in town, and he kindly suggested she call me. I’m forever grateful to both. It was an honor and a pleasure to be her sidekick and document her experience.
Ellen was in great spirits, excited, very happy; she told me it was only her second time out to an event like this in four and a half years, since her cancer diagnosis. I tried to make the evening as special as I could.
Surprisingly, she had never met producer and Roxy co-founder Lou Adler, one of the event’s guests of honor, and I got to introduce them (Lou and I had met in 1992 when he was exec producer of the “Monterey International Pop Festival” box set, which Geoff Gans and I co-produced, earning a Grammy nomination for all three of us).
Also a co-founder of the nonprofit Painted Turtle camp just north of L.A. for kids with medical challenges, Adler was genuinely pleased to meet Ellen and interested in her personal story. For close to 10 minutes, as they stood in front of her photos, they shared memories of opening night few others would know.
It was also fun to introduce Ellen to Cisco Adler, one of Lou’s sons, a performer/producer I’d met a decade earlier when he and rapper-collaborator Shwayze played a gig near my home in Santa Clarita. Cisco peppered Ellen with questions and enjoyed her Roxy recollections as they perused her pics.
At the after-party, Ellen and I got to share a table and enjoy some laughs with noted photographer and Mustangs of the West guitarist Sherry Rayn Barnett.
On the way out, Lou Adler graciously signed Ellen’s Blu-ray copy of filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker’s monumental “Monterey Pop” documentary. She was aglow as we left.
I loved catching those moments for her, when Ellen Berman, Photographer was in front of the camera for a change.
The next day, after I shared all the photos with her, we spoke on the phone. “You were the best plus-one ever!” she exclaimed.
Mission accomplished.
Next to my wife, Nadine (our first date was a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/Louisiana’s Le Roux gig at The Roxy in May 1978), Ellen Berman was MY all-time favorite plus-one.
Encore Visit to the Grammy Museum
On the last day of August 2024, Ellen Berman and David Connelly visited the Grammy Museum to catch the Roxy 50th anniversary displays once last time before the exhibit wrapped its extended run.
“It was so nice to see her recognized for her work,” Connelly said. “She’d never had that kind of recognition and it really meant a lot to her. She was incredibly upbeat that day.”
“It seems fitting that my final image of Ellen is her taking a picture of a picture she took,” he said.
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Berman’s Last Visit with Sherrick
By the end of 2024, Ellen was staying at the Fireside medical rehab facility in Santa Monica, because she was in and out of the hospital while continuing to receive aggressive cancer treatment from a dedicated team of specialists at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
Harold Sherrick visited her at Fireside in January while he was in SoCal for the NAMM show in Anaheim and to see family. He picked up Ellen at Fireside in the early afternoon. She was not strong enough to walk much so they took a wheelchair. They enjoyed revisiting favorite places around her old neighborhood for the next few hours, including the donut shop at Farmer’s Market on Fairfax.
“We had coffee and donuts, and just sat there, chatted, and did some people-watching,” Sherrick said later in a call. “Ellen was just happy to be out. She said she hadn’t been out for months. We went to the Apple store at The Grove, and drove around Hollywood to other places and landmarks where we’d been before, like Canter’s on Fairfax. We went up Sunset so she could see The Whisky and The Roxy again, and we talked and reminisced. In the late afternoon, about 4:30, we made it back to Fireside.
“My wife had just bought a new laptop, and she was gonna use it, but decided at the last minute that she wanted to give it to Ellen as a gift, because Ellen’s computer was old and not working very well. So I had the laptop all bubble-wrapped and brought it with me and presented it to Ellen. She just flipped out and started crying, she was so happy: ‘You guys are wonderful! You are the best friends!’ she said.
“Ellen did say that she was cancer-free, that she had just had a Zoom with her doctor and he told her the cancer had disappeared. She was very happy about that, and just kept saying, ‘Now, all I have to do is get my strength back!’ She just wanted her life back. I really thought she could do it.”
But the cancer and five years of treatments had left Ellen’s body too weak; soon she was fighting the flu and a lung infection. On Friday, February 28, she suffered a life-threatening setback and was rushed to UCLA for an emergency intervention, which sadly proved unsuccessful.
‘She Was Listening to The Beatles’
“Ellen passed away at 2:25 a.m. on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at UCLA Hospital in Westwood,” Connelly wrote in a heartfelt note to donors on March 3. “She took a sudden and unexpected turn. While there was little time to prepare, her final hours were spent as peacefully as possible in the care of an amazing hospital staff and the presence of loved ones. She was listening to The Beatles.
“Ellen put up an incredible fight,” Connelly continued. “Throughout these last five years, she faced each challenge and setback with bravery and the determination to win. Although she struggled mightily with it, she remained optimistic that she could ‘beat this thing.’ And in many ways, she did. The disease may have taken her body, but it never broke her spirit.
“I would have liked to have posted more updates on this site but she always wanted to wait until there was some good news. She didn’t want to be ‘a bummer’ (her words).
“But I want you all to know how much your support meant to her. She was moved to tears so many times by your generosity and your words of support. She could not have fought this long or this hard without you. Your donations kept her afloat when she couldn’t work, and they will provide the funds necessary to cover her final expenses. Thank you, sincerely.
“Ellen was so many things to so many people. She was an incredible artist, a wonderful storyteller, a loyal and caring friend, and to me, my ‘fairy godmother.’
“She was but one in a generation of talented female artists marginalized by an unseeing, male-dominated art world. And, like so many before and after, she sidelined many of her artistic pursuits to fulfill the responsibility of caretaker [for her ailing parents until their passing, her mother in the late 1970s and father in the early 2000s].
“But her true life’s work, as an artist, will be preserved. Ellen entrusted me with her archive, and I will do my best to organize, preserve, and protect her legacy. Her life is in her work, and her work will grant her eternal life.
“Please spread the word to friends and loved ones who may not get these updates. I’m going to leave this site open in the hope that you might all share a favorite memory or a fun story about Ellen. …
“Photography was her medium, but the focus of her interest was her true art. She was fascinated by music and people and events. When you were on the other side of her lens, you felt the energy and intensity of her creative passion.
“In that spirit, there’s something we can all do to be one with Ellen and honor her spirit: Take some time to look at the world around you. Find something you really, really love. And take a picture of it.
“With love, David.”
Berman never married or had children. She is survived by her younger brother Joe Berman of Los Angeles, his wife Pamela, and their son Julian; and a cousin, Diana Murphy, a resident of Irvine.
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Protecting and Sharing Ellen Berman’s Legacy
“It’s important that Ellen gets her due because she was an amazing person,” Connelly told me.
“She took amazing photos, but due to a lot of circumstances kind of beyond her control, she didn’t get the attention she deserved. I want her collection to stay intact, as she requested, and her legacy to live on.
“ Ellen should be remembered not only as a great artist, but also as an expansively loving human being, and a very sweet and giving person. She’s the best friend you could have ever wanted.
“Her life was her work. She was so dedicated to the art of photography. But that she sidelined her career to take care of her mother and then her father when they were sick speaks to the kind of person she was, the heart she had. As much as her art meant to her, she knew there were other things she had to do, and did them.
“That motivates my responsibility to Ellen in the same way.”
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More Tributes From Ellen’s Friends, Colleagues & Clients
Jonathan Lea, Facebook, March 3: ”I’m so sad to hear that my friend Ellen Berman has passed away. It was always great to see Ellen and quite an honor for Theresa (O’Donohue) and me to be photographed by her at events. … Theresa and I invited Ellen to dinner last Thanksgiving but at the last minute, she became too ill to join us. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to see her one more time but I’m glad she’s no longer suffering. RIP Ellen, and thank you for the days.”
Nick Faitos, Facebook, March 3: “I’ve met very few people who were as … simply nice and as generous of spirit as Ellen Berman, who just never wanted anything to be about her but entirely about the place, the occasion, and about you. ‘How do you like this?’ ‘What do you think about that?’ she’d always ask. She loved everything she did and lived a very fortunate life: She had passions and interests and independently followed them. She had style and knew who she was. Ellen was one of a kind.”
Diane Cockerill, Facebook, March 3: “Devastated to hear that the lovely and talented Ellen Berman passed away on March 1st. She was one of a kind – beautiful inside and out. Great memories of the day we spent together at the Women’s March in downtown, 2017.”
Bruce Ansley, “Harry Nilsson: Gotta Get Up” page, Facebook, March 3: “Ellen spent time with Harry and Keith Moon during John Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend’ period in Los Angeles. She used her trusty Kodak Instamatic camera to take one of the few known photos of Harry and Keith posing together.
“She was a kind and gentle soul and a keen observer of fame and celebrity. Ellen will be greatly missed by those who knew and loved her. Say hi to Harry and Keith from us, won’t you, please, Ellen?”
Susan Hayden, friend and Wild Honey Foundation supporter, Facebook, March 3: “This news, it breaks my heart. I loved you very much, Ellen Berman. RIP, dear one.”
Syd Straw, singer/songwriter and former Wild Honey Orchestra performer, Facebook, March 3 and 4: “I’m sending this out for Bob Rupe and Ellen Berman. May they somehow escort each other to a better realm … i hope she is on a cloud looking down at all of us with love, citizen syd.”
Peggy French, Facebook, March 4: “I am so sad dear Ellen that you have transitioned and are on your next journey. With no knowledge of your passing, you were front and center in my mind on that day, so our connection remains strong, and I know we shall meet again. I always enjoyed hearing you tell the stories of your life, as only you could tell them with strong feeling and great laughter. You were an excellent observer of life and a creative inspiration with your photos.”
Harold Sherrick, Facebook, March 4: “My dear friend Ellen Berman has passed away. I saw Ellen in January of this year. I picked her up and we spent the afternoon at the Grove and drove around Hollywood, reminiscing about the great times we had. I’m so very glad I had this time with her.”
Ken Ramm, Facebook, March 5: “Ellen was a born and bred Los Angeles photographic artist. A REAL artist. … Ellen’s photographs caught the inner soul of whatever or whoever she focused her lens on. A rare gift. She also had a great sense of humor, which I will always miss.
“Wherever I was – the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, etc. – I would call Ellen, and she would accompany me on sometimes two-hour jaunts (we called them ‘walks’) that carried conversation topics far and wide. Lots of laughs and very serious conversations about life, her illness, politics, art, and especially music. Music was something Ellen loved and knew a lot about from her ‘behind the lens’ perspective.
“I will miss her. Hippocrates wrote, ‘Art is long, life is short.’ I say, remembrances can last a lifetime. I will remember my friend Ellen.”
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Ellen, please save us a couple of seats at the Big Show. We’ll be along eventually.
Fuck cancer.
Special thanks to all the photographers whose images appear here. If you have a photo or tribute or more details on these images, including missing photo credits, please send a note to skp (at) stephenkpeeples.com.
Stephen K. Peeples was raised in Neenah, Wisconsin, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles in the ’50s and ’60s by career newspaper journalists and music lovers. Based in Santa Clarita, California, since 1987, he marked his 50th anniversary in media in May 2025 as a writer/producer and editor for print, records, radio, TV, and the web. Along the way he earned several awards and honors including a Grammy nomination in 1994 as co-producer of the “Monterey International Pop Festival” box set (Rhino/MIPF). For more info, see the “About” page on Peeples’ website. You’ll find more archival and recent original stories and exclusive interviews posted on Peeples’ website and on his YouTube channel.
Article: Shots of Love: L.A. Photographer Ellen Berman Remembered
Category: News and Reviews
Author: Stephen K. Peeples
Article Source: stephenkpeeples.com
