Allen C. Reed
Photographer
1916–2009
Prolific. That was Allen C. Reed’s work for Arizona Highways. And, really, that’s an understatement. For decades, beginning in July 1949, Reed photographed and authored more than 50 articles for the magazine, many of which were about the Navajo and other Indigenous people of the state. In August 1952, for example, he wrote and photographed a feature titled Navajo Tribal Fair.
“To Kii yazhi it was a very special sun that peeped over the plateau of his native Navajoland that cool mid-September morning,” Reed wrote. “With his robes pulled tightly about his shoulders, he sat leaning against a wheel of his father’s wagon, anxiously watching the eastern sky. He had waited silently in the darkness long before the first rosy glow of dawn tinted the wispy clouds.”
Reed was a natural storyteller whose words were as painterly as many of his images. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1916, he attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles; there, he met his wife, Shirley. During World War II, Lockheed hired him to illustrate military aircraft parts and repair manuals. After the war, the Reeds relocated to Phoenix, where they opened an advertising agency — a pursuit Reed balanced with his extensive travels across the Southwest, making photographs and writing about his experiences.
And even though many of Reed’s stories took place in the Four Corners region of Arizona, he didn’t shy away from more central locations. In March 1951, Arizona Highways published a 10-page feature wherein Reed did double duty.
“She’s quite a character, the Verde [River], with moods by the mileful,” he wrote. “She’ll ponder for a few hundred yards in deep meditation, burst forth in a gay spurt of foam and spray, splashing through the shallows, swirling down the narrows, splitting at a sandbar, racing herself to the other end and running her fingers through the tall grass and willows of a half-submerged island only to pause again, catch her breath and lag along in another deep, quiet pond.”
After Reed retired, he relocated to Greenehaven, where he continued to make photographs while running a real estate sales office. Although he died in 2009, his legacy lives on in the pages of Arizona Highways.
— Kelly Vaughn
Arizona Highways inaugural Hall of Fame Inductees