Andrew Huse / Staff Photographer

Walter Cotten’s life was defined by photographs. Making art out of photography was undoubtedly his passion, and he loved to share it with others. On Friday, about 100 friends, family, colleagues and former students shared with each other just how their lives were changed by Cotten’s love for taking pictures. Gathered around some of his equipment and his Ford F150 in a courtyard outside the Art building, they spoke about memories of a friend and teacher taken away from them much too soon.Cotten, who died of a heart attack on Tuesday, was remembered as an artist who had a profound impact on the students he taught photography and lithography to for more than 30 years at San Diego State’s School of Art, Design and Art History.”He wasn’t easy,” said longtime friend and student Jim Cavoltt. “He pushed me harder than anyone else. Walter made me see what I needed to see and he pushed me where I needed to be pushed, and I will never forget him for that.”Cavoltt, who was convinced by Cotten to pursue his graduate degree, referred to his friend and colleague as a legend in the photography community. Cotten’s work focusing on the dry lakes of California has been exhibited in galleries in London, Montreal and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla.”Walter always said he wasn’t a photographer, he was an artist,” Cavoltt said. “He tried to instill that into everyone he taught.”Richard Keely, a sculpture professor at SDSU, said that while most students who received art degrees would stop making art, those who learned from Cotten continued to produce.”I’ve learned a world from him,” Keely said. “He’s got this amazing influence, and most of those people he worked with…they will be artists for the rest of their lives.”Other colleagues, such as painting instructor Gail Roberts, remembered Cotten as a man who was unquestionably devoted to teaching. She reflected on the personality that made him so beloved to the faculty, saying that Cotten had a number of grandmothers and that one would die before the first faculty meeting of each year, causing him to miss it.While members of Cotten’s family laid flowers on the hood of his truck, former students crowded around a table featuring one of Cotten’s photos. In that picture, he is standing in the middle of a dry lake bed, his hat in his left hand and a dog walking off toward the distance. Painting professor Janet Cooling, who worked with Cotten for 24 years, spoke directly to those students, asking them to use their shock and grief over his sudden death as a “creative power.””The best way to honor Walt, and I mean this sincerely,” Cooling said, “is to take all the feelings that you have and make the best damn art you can make.”