The Grand Canyon, Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano are some of the geologic and cultural gems of the National Park Service. This summer, KNAU's Earth Notes series will highlight these, and other special places across the Southwest in honor of the Park Service's 100th anniversary. In the sixth and final installment of the series, we profile photographer George Grant, the first chief NPS photographer. For 25 years, he took iconic shots of the Grand Canyon and other parks of the Southwest.
In its early days, the fledgling National Park Service wanted to lure people to the nation’s parks. One way was to send out a photographer to document the places and their superlative scenery.
That person was a young Pennsylvania man named George Grant. He’d persuaded parks director Horace Albright to hire him for the dream job as the agency’s first chief photographer.
From 1929 until 1954, Grant traveled more than 140,000 miles across the country in a specially equipped truck called the “Hearse.” Though scenery was his main focus, he bowed to his bosses who wanted more people in his shots – often turning his lens on photogenic young women.
Top assignment his first summer was the Grand Canyon, where he produced wide-angle views from the rim and where he returned for several more field seasons. Grant also visited other places on the park-rich Colorado Plateau, making images of the temples of Zion, the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, the cliffs of Capitol Reef, and the region’s many archaeology sites.
Using mainly a 5-by-7 view camera with black and white film, he amassed more than thirty thousand photographs showcasing his mastery of classic composition and technique. Those photos were used to illustrate the agency’s brochures, reports, and interpretive programs, but he was rarely credited by name.
After his death in 1964, George Grant entered the select ranks of “Eminent Photographers” of the National Park Service — well-deserved and long-overdue attention for this dedicated chronicler of America’s defining places.
