Before photographer Lucien Capehart passed away in February at age 65 from a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, he captured hundreds of images of the rich and famous and froze thousands of important moments in time. Capehart was a fixture on the Palm Beach social scene for three decades.

A new exhibit at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre features 28 signature Capehart images taken between the late 1970s and 2011 by the extraordinary man. From the splendor of the Red Cross Ball to the smaller private moments that chronicled the good life on tony Palm Beach, Capehart was the trusted man behind the camera.

Daniel E. Ponton, owner of Club Colette, called Lucien Capehart “the finest of friends and truest of gentlemen.”

He was also a down-to-earth husband and a doting father to his only child, Lily. Capehart loved getting his hands dirty in the garden before cleaning up for a black tie event. He was a founding member of Gentlemen of the Garden, a group that supports the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden in West Palm Beach and other horticultural causes.

The elaborate homes on the ocean and Intracoastal were a far cry from the Texas town where Capehart grew up. By all accounts, he should have felt like an outsider, but his charm and grace, and his skill behind the lens, endeared him to just about everyone he met.

You weren’t an official member of well-heeled Palm Beach society until you’d been photographed by Capehart. He had a way of making his subjects look good, which made him look good.

The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 5.