David Muench
Photographer
Born 1936
“My fondest memories of working with Arizona Highways are the connections to Arizona’s diverse landscapes it has afforded me,” David Muench, who now lives in Montana, says via email. “But I guess that really means starting with Raymond Carlson, both as a warm memory and as the beginning of my long history with the magazine. I was still in high school when I accompanied my father [photographer Josef Muench] to meet him. Encouraging from that first meeting, he told me to send him something good and they would publish it. So, I was still in my teens when I had my first covers, front and back, thanks to him.”
That was more than 70 years ago, in January 1955 — which makes Muench this magazine’s longest-running and most storied contributor.
In the same email exchange, he says Toroweap Overlook is a favorite place to make images, particularly at sunrise. (June, when the sun is directly over the Colorado River, is ideal for this, he adds.)
“The photographs I made had to match the grandeur of the landscape with the most unusual light,” he says. “Making acceptable, and then great, images became a passion for me. I could not just ‘be there.’ I had to get into the feeling I wanted to convey. You could walk right into one of my images. To get it right, I would return again at different times. I needed to be present in the image.”
And that dedication is why Muench is among the inductees in our Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. “I think David was a true innovator in the world of photography — he saw and photographed Arizona unlike anyone who came before,” says Arizona Highways Photo Editor Jeff Kida. “People looked at his approach and began to emulate his style very quickly. Many of today’s scenic photographers have adopted some of David’s signature approaches to photography, and chances are, they don’t know why. Creatives like this are rare birds, and his impact on the visual evolution of the magazine has been enormous.”
— Kelly Vaughn
Arizona Highways inaugural Hall of Fame Inductees