if you are into trains, you've probably seen a pic credited "Roger Puta photo", they're everywhere. Roger Puta was one of the most prolific photographers of trains, mass transit, etc. of all time and he died in 1990 at age 46 of AIDS. About Roger Puta:

this started a bit ago when @catgxrl mentioned thinking Roger Puta was gay. Interesting, I'd always pictured an old guy in an "Amtrak 45th Anniversary" hat. Hannah showed me a small thread on a rail forum about his life and I was surprised.

Roger Puta was born in 1944 and grew up in Chicago. He worked for railroads and lived in DC and San Francisco. He and his partner ran a bus touring company. He died in 1990 at age 46. Discussing his death at a young age was off limits.

The complete scan of the AIDS Quilt was put up recently ( https://www.aidsmemorial.org/custom-templates/interactive-aids-quilt) I checked and Roger Puta is in block #1829. The greatest photographer in transit history was gay, he died of AIDS, and all of this was forgotten.

Learning about AIDS has always been really difficult for me, long before I ever realized I was queer. The number of people that were deemed unworthy by society and allowed to die because they were gay is horrific. The absolute least we can do is remember them now.

It's upsetting to think about how Roger's life as a gay man has been erased. If you're into nerdy stuff like trains, other gay people are rare. Knowing that a gay man created one of the greatest photo collections in the field, decades ago, is amazing.

Roger's life work has been scanned and put online in the public domain. If his life had been worthy to society to be saved, he would have lived decades longer producing beautiful art.

Gay people deserve to live. Gay people deserve to be remembered.

Roger Puta, the greatest and most prolific photographer of railroads, of all time. He deserved to live. Despite what society believed: his life was worthy.

1944-1990.

Roger Puta's obituary in the San Francisco Examiner: https://archive.org/stream/BAR_19900531/BAR_19900531_djvu.txt

A few more miscellany: Roger Puta in the cab of a train (1981), on one of his coach buses (1988), and his Scenic Hyway Tours coach (1988)