This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

John Pfahl, an inventive landscape photographer renowned for manipulating the natural world by inserting into it objects like rope, foil, lace, tape and, once, a pie pan, died on April 15 in Buffalo, N.Y. He was 81.

His sister-in-law, Cathy Pfahl, said that the cause was the new coronavirus, but that he had also had heart problems, mild dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Pfahl developed a reputation as a masterly if quirky landscape photographer over more than 40 years. In addition to his manipulations, he found beauty in peculiar vistas like the belching smoke of a coke plant in Lackawanna, N.Y., the rotting fruit and vegetables of his compost pile, and a stately hill of road salt — often as statements about the environmental impact of industrialization.