Michael A. W. Evans, a photographer whose picture of Ronald Reagan in a well-worn cowboy hat was on the covers of Time, Newsweek and People after Mr. Reagan's death last year, died yesterday at his home in Atlanta. He was 61.

The cause was cancer, the National Press Photographers Association said.

Mr. Evans worked for Time magazine, The New York Times and other publications, but was best known as the official White House photographer during the Reagan administration. He was by the president's side when he was shot in 1981, and for weeks afterward Mr. Reagan was seen by the public almost exclusively in still photographs taken by Mr. Evans or his staff of four.

The photograph of Mr. Reagan, smiling his celebrated, slightly crooked smile, was taken in 1975 during the early months of his losing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Evans said in interviews in 2004.