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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jimi Lott, honored photographer, dies


Lott
 (The Spokesman-Review)
Seattle Times

James G. “Jimi” Lott, a former Spokesman-Review, Spokane Chronicle and Seattle Times photographer, was found dead Tuesday evening in a Wenatchee motel room. He was 52.

Chelan County Coroner Dr. Gina Fino ruled the death a suicide.

Lott was chief photographer at The Spokane Chronicle from 1982 to 1984. He worked briefly at The Spokesman-Review after it was merged with the Chronicle.

Lott moved to The Times in 1984. He left that newspaper last year to pursue work in photo illustration.

Lott’s honors won the 1989 Cowles Cup, named for William Hutchison Cowles, late publisher of The Spokesman-Review. He was part of a Times investigative team whose coverage of safety problems with the rudders on Boeing 737s won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

“Stories about the down-and-out – the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill – were closest to Jimi’s heart,” said Times Metro Editor Jim Simon, who as a reporter in the late 1980s worked with Lott on a series about the state’s troubled mental-health system.

Lott was born in Pontiac, Mich., and raised in San Diego.

“He was just a little kid when a friend of ours gave him a camera and he just loved it,” said his sister Trudy Johnson, of Wenatchee. “He loved taking pictures and making little 8-mm movies. He would gather all the neighborhood kids around and make movies.”

In the early 1970s, Lott attended San Diego City College and Southwest Oregon Community College, getting his first photo job in 1972 at The World in Coos Bay, Ore., where he later worked at the Bay Reporter. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he worked as director of photography at the Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon, Wash., and then the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Away from work, Lott’s interests included music.

“A few years ago, he played drums in my garage band,” said Times reporter Alex Fryer. “He used these small diameter sticks because he pounded the skins so hard. He’d always complain about his back or his blisters, but when he played, man, he totally rocked. He was a very, very talented musician.”

Lott’s survivors include his son, Joshua Lott, and ex-wife, Kathleen Lott, both of Shoreline, Wash., and stepfather, Walter Hoskinson, of Wenatchee. No public memorial is planned.