Renowned photographer dies

BALTIMORE – Thomas J. Abercrombie, a National Geographic magazine photographer who survived numerous near-death experiences in 38 years of world travel, died of complications from open-heart surgery. He was 75.

Ellen Siskind, a National Geographic spokeswoman, said Abercrombie died at Johns Hopkins Hospital on April 3.

Shortly after arriving at the magazine in 1956, Abercrombie was sent to Antarctica from an assignment in Lebanon. Once there, he won a lottery to be the first journalist to reach the South Pole. But the plane froze up and he was stranded in Antarctica for three weeks, prompting a superior to ban further flights “until the weather warms up to minus 50 degrees.”

Abercrombie dived with Jacques Cousteau, which he said was “like swimming with a fish.” He slipped off a yak in Afghanistan and narrowly escaped plunging into a 1,000-foot-deep chasm.