David Muench
David Muench is an American landscape and nature photographer known for portraying the American western landscape. He is the primary photographer for more than 60 books and his work appears in many magazines, posters, and private collections.
Career
Muench was born on June 25, 1936, in Santa Barbara, California. Muench has been a freelance photographer since the 1950s with his formal schooling including the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, The University of California at Santa Barbara and the Art Center School of Design, Los Angeles.His first Arizona Highways cover was published in January 1955 at the age of 18, and he has continued to work with the magazine since then. In December 2015, to celebrate seven decades of collaboration, Arizona Highways dedicated an entire issue of the magazine to Muench, the first time they had done so for a single person.
At the recommendation of Ansel Adams, more than 200 images by Muench are archived in the collection of the Center for Creative Photography. Although he has done a few exhibits, Muench chose the coffee table book as the main vehicle for his photography. He is the author of more than 60 books.
In 1975, Muench was commissioned by the National Park Service to photograph 33 large murals on the Lewis and Clark Expedition for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri, including 350 smaller photographs to accompany the murals. In 2000, Muench received the National Parks Conservation Association's Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks.