Arizona Highways
David Muench’s partnership with Arizona Highways lasted over seven decades, starting with his first cover image in 1955 when Muench was only 18 years old. The fruits of their labor included countless photographs featured in the magazine as well as several books of Muench’s pictures published by Arizona Highways, such as Vast & Intimate: Connecting with the Natural World (2002). Arizona Highways editor Robert Stieve and the team dedicated their December 2015 issue solely to Muench’s work, something they had never done before and have not done since. If that praise wasn’t high enough, David Muench was also inducted into the Arizona Highways Hall of Fame in April 2025 for the magazine’s centennial celebration, an occasion which must have felt like coming full circle in his career.
“If you’re at all familiar with this magazine, you’ve seen the incredible work of David Muench.”
– Robert Stieve, Arizona Highways (December 2015 issue)
A satellite display of 12 selected Arizona Highways magazine covers by Muench, located in Matador at Scholar’s Corner on the first floor of Cline Library, honors their long-standing relationship.
National Park Service
As a landscape photographer, it was only natural for David Muench to work with the National Park Service in some capacity. He was an avid visitor of the parks, often (though briefly) commenting on how changes to policy and access to federal lands have affected his ability to work in these protected areas as the years went by.
Muench’s most notable collaboration with the National Park Service was the Lewis and Clark exhibit at the Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis, Missouri, located below the Gateway Arch in Gateway Arch National Park. The 33 murals featuring his photography were scaled up from his original 4×5″ transparencies and stood 15 feet tall and five to 35 feet in length. Muench took the original photographs used in this exhibit along the Lewis and Clark Expedition route between 1972 and 1976. These photographic murals were on permanent display from the exhibit’s opening in 1979 to the museum’s closure for restructuring in 2015.
More information about Muench’s Lewis and Clark exhibit can be found via the National Park Service’s website.
publications
“Observing Nature’s design and pattern, light and form, matched with a creative timing make up the recipe for unique moments of expression I have been open to.”
– David Muench, Eternal Desert (1990), pg. 33.
David Muench had a long-standing relationship with Graphic Arts Publishing Center in Portland, Oregon, publishing large-format exhibit style books of his photographs. He also worked with other publishers like Rand McNally. In total, Muench published around 70 books and contributed to countless magazines. Both Eternal Desert (1990), with text by Frank Waters, and David Muench’s Arizona: Cherish the Land, Walk in Beauty (1997) feature David Muench as a contributing writer, a rare occurrence for the prolific photographer. A number of Muench’s books are national park-specific or subject-specific, like Windstone: Natural Arches, Bridges, and Other Openings (2003) or Timeless Moments: Grand Canyon National Park (2017). One of his rarer books, Desert Images (1979), with text from environmentalist and author Edward Abbey, will be re-issued by Rizzoli in 2025 with a new introduction by Craig Childs.
Many of Muench’s books are available in the David Muench Research Library, located on the second floor of Cline Library.
Center for Creative Photography
The University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in Tucson, Arizona holds 200 of David Muench’s prints, a collection of his greatest work over every region of the United States. Muench was added to CCP’s collection of influential fine art photographers at the recommendation of fellow landscape photographer Ansel Adams. In 2000, CCP hosted the exhibit Arizona Highways: Celebrating the Tradition, featuring images by David Muench, Jack Dykinga, and Ansel Adams. This exhibit first appeared at the Phoenix Art Museum before traveling to CCP and then on to the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Learn more about the David Muench collection at the Center for Creative Photography here.