Peter Carni, 69; Shot Photographs of Pop Stars, Politicians

Peter Carni, 69, a commercial photographer who shot the album cover for Bob Dylan’s “Down in the Groove” (1988) and portraits of various entertainers including Pearl Bailey, Bob Hope, Maria Muldaur and the Stray Cats rockabilly band during the 1970s and 1980s, died Sunday in Willets, Calif., of pancreatic cancer, according to his son, Scott Carni.

Carni’s photograph of Dylan shows him sitting at a piano holding a guitar. It was shot in the auditorium of a church in Hollywood, Scott Carni said.

Born in West Virginia and raised in Venice, Calif., Carni graduated from USC and went into business, opening several Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in the San Fernando Valley. He took up photography as a hobby in the mid-1960s and soon developed enough work to support a career change.

He opened a studio in Playa del Rey in 1969 and built a corporate client list that included Sunkist, Honda America and Walt Disney Productions.

His clients also included politicians, among them Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).