Landscapes for the People: George Alexander Grant, First Chief Photographer of the National Park Service

by Ren Davis, Helen Davis, George Alexander Grant (Photographs)

George Alexander Grant is an unknown elder in the field of American landscape photography. Just as they did the work of his contemporaries Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, and others, millions of people viewed Grant’s photographs; unlike those contemporaries, few even knew Grant’s name. Landscapes for the People shares his story through his remarkable images and a compelling biography profiling patience, perseverance, dedication, and an unsurpassed love of the natural and historic places that Americans chose to preserve.

A Pennsylvania native, Grant was introduced to the parks during the summer of 1922 and resolved to make parks work and photography his life. Seven years later, he received his dream job and spent the next quarter century visiting the four corners of the country to produce images in more than one hundred national parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, and other locations. He was there to visually document the dramatic expansion of the National Park Service during the New Deal, including the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Grant’s images are the work of a master craftsman. His practiced eye for composition and exposure and his patience to capture subjects in their finest light are comparable to those of his more widely known contemporaries. Nearly fifty years after his death, and in concert with the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service, it is fitting that George Grant’s photography be introduced to a new generation of Americans.

A Friends Fund Publication

Genres: Photography, Nature, History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

Render S. (Ren) Davis' travel writing and photography have appeared in such places as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Magazine, and Atlanta Magazine. He is coauthor, with Helen Davis, of several books, including Georgia Walks, Atlanta Walks, and Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery: An Illustrated History and Guide..

Reviews

[Myra]

Authors I saw at the 2015 Decatur Book Festival.

"George Alexander Grant is an unknown elder in the field of American landscape photography. Just as they did the work of his contemporaries Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, and others, millions of people viewed Grant’s photographs; unlike those contemporaries, few even knew Grant’s name. "

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Grant and seeing his work.

[Peg Albrets]

i had never heard of this photographer. Fascinating story and amaZIng pictures of the parks.

[Judy]

If you want to see photos of the National Parks taken in the 1920s to 1940s, this is the book for you. Interesting to see familiar locations as they looked in the past. Accompanied by an interesting biography of the photographer.

This might be of special interest to today's landscape photographers.

[Martha]

All black and white photographs by the first photographer of the National Park Service. Most of the photographs are taken in the early 1930's. We learn about George Alexander Grant and then view his images taken in our national parks and close with portraits, assignments and technical images. These rare photographs tell a history of the park system and show unspoiled areas of the landscapes.

[JustHB]

A photochronical of landscapes. Whilst beautiful, I would have appreciated some contrast with modern, maybe showing changes. An okay book to flip through or for a coffee table.