Joel Bender | Camera shop owner, 69

Joel Bender, 69, of Lansdale, who operated Fotorama Photo and Video Center in Center City for 27 years, died of renal failure Monday at home.

Mr. Bender sold cameras and video gear, specializing in used equipment. He often demonstrated and sold video cameras to student filmmakers including David Lynch, who later directed movies including Blue Velvet and cocreated the television series Twin Peaks.Everyone was welcome in his store, said Mr. Bender's wife, Andrea Kandransky Bender, including the homeless, who always could count on him for a handout. After he sold Fotorama in 1999, she said, customers and other store owners told him that Center City was not the same without him.

Mr. Bender graduated from Olney High School. He was employed by several companies before going to work in the camera store owned by his father-in-law, Ben Kandransky, which he eventually took over.

When his children were growing up, his wife said, he devoted Sundays, when the store was closed, to them. In recent years, she said, he enjoyed babysitting his grandchildren; painting and drawing; Broadway shows, and beaches.

In addition to his wife of 42 years, Mr. Bender is survived by his sons Noah and Benjamin; a daughter, Ellyn Cohen; a brother; and five grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. today at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks Memorial Chapel, 6410 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Burial will be in Shalom Memorial Park, Philadelphia.