Josef Muench
Photographer
1904–1998
Josef Muench’s prolific relationship with Arizona Highways is one the Bavarian immigrant likely couldn’t have imagined when he quit the Ford assembly line in Detroit and headed west in a Model T in the 1930s. And it’s a relationship that endures today, as we continue to publish Muench’s photos nearly three decades after his death.
After Muench settled in California, his growing talent for landscape photography funded trips around the Southwest, including Arizona, which he first visited in 1936. He met Arizona Highways Editor Raymond Carlson two years later and soon sent a package of transparencies to the magazine. From that package came the cover photo for the July 1939 issue — a spectacular shot of Navajo Falls in Havasu Canyon — and interior shots of Rainbow Bridge and Monument Valley in the same issue. After that, Muench’s work became a constant presence on the magazine’s pages — as did Muench himself, who often appeared in his own photos while wearing his trademark red shirt.
In introducing a 1969 look at Muench’s work, Carlson noted that “Joe’s name has appeared in our credit roster more often than that of any of our other contributing photographers.” And while Muench ventured all over the state, the Navajo Nation particularly fascinated him, and his photos played a key role in luring Hollywood to Monument Valley and making that site an enduring symbol of the West.
For years, when asked for his favorite place in Arizona, Muench offered a cagey answer: “Wherever I am at the moment.” Later in his career, though, he admitted that only one location had impressed him enough that he’d meticulously cataloged each of his visits. “Just recently, I counted my 160th appearance in beautiful and exciting Monument Valley,” he wrote. It was a fruitful fascination — for him and for us.
— Noah Austin
Arizona Highways inaugural Hall of Fame Inductees