Gulshan Aziz, the face of newspaper.

PESHAWAR -- Gulshan Aziz, the photojournalist who died on Monday in Peshawar, was among the last of photographers harking back to the era of darkrooms, when a photojournalist would spend as much time in the field as in small dark cubicles at the office reeking of chemicals. He was both the eye that captured the picture and the hand that developed it.

Aziz was from Lahore. He started his career in the tumultuous 70s, joining the Mashriq newspaper in its heydays. Back then, Mashriq was the only newspaper in the former Northwest Frontier Province.

Through his 40 or so years of association with the newspaper, he covered some of the pivotal developments in the chequered history of Pakistan such as the Afghan War, Zia's martial law, Pakistan's return to democracy and the volatile political decade of the 90s. It was a time during the Cold War and its aftermath when print was the only media in the country and therefore deeply relevant to the politics and history of Pakistan.

Even though an intrepid visual chronicler of the conflicts and politics that has shaped Pakistan over the decades, Aziz's was always drawn to nature and the landscape. In his spare time...