Theodore Sahl was an award winning photographer in San José, California. Sahl spent 30 years as a photojournalist, documenting social and political events in the Bay Area. Born May 5, 1927 to a poor Jewish family in Roxbury, an Irish suburb near Boston, he faced discrimination on a daily basis living in the tenements of South Boston. He served in the U.S. Navy (1947) and was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina where he first witnessed separate facilities and drinking fountains for African Americans. These early experiences formed his views on social justice and civil rights. He spent his primary career working as a welder in California, and in the 1970s he became an active photojournalist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

Although best known for his involvement with the LGBT community in San José, he also covered the anti-nuclear demonstrations at the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory (1980-1987), the Mt. Diablo Nuclear Plant protests (1980-1987), the United Farm Workers strikes (1970-1980s), and many other social protest movements in the region. Sahl's long-time association with the LGBT community began in 1978 after a bitter dispute took place between the gay community and members of the Christian right. Local Christian groups were upset over the San José City Council's decision to issue a proclamation in support of Gay Pride Week. While the Christian groups mobilized against the City Council, the gay community held a rally in support of Gay Pride Week. Intrigued by the grassroots activism and interested in recording the event, Sahl attended the protest and thereby launched a long career documenting the LGBT community.

Initially, the community distrusted Sahl's motives as a heterosexual outsider. At that time, many individuals in the gay community were still "closeted" and did not wish to be photographed. Over the next three decades, however, Sahl gained the trust of the community and today is widely recognized for his work as a photojournalist and as an outspoken advocate for gay rights.

Sahl served as the staff photographer for a number of local LGBT newspapers including the Lambda News (1978-1983), Our Paper (1984-1988), South Bay Times (1988-1990), and the Valley Views. His photographs have appeared in a number of works, including a 1999 San José Mercury News documentary on the city's lesbian and gay community, entitled A Community of One. More recently his work was recognized in another Mercury News story published March 25, 2011, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Billy DeFrank center. In 1981, the San Francisco Cable Car Award Association nominated Sahl for an award in photojournalism. He was also the recipient of an honorable mention in Advocate magazine's National Photo Contest in the "People" category. He has the distinction of being the only heterosexual to ever become the President of the Board of the San José Gay Pride Celebration Committee and was inducted into the Santa Clara Gay Hall of Fame in 1988. He is the author of From Closet to Community: a Quest for Gay and Lesbian Liberation in San Jose and Santa Clara County (2002).