Joseph Munroe

Joseph J. "Joe" Munroe, well-known photographer and filmmaker since 1939, died quietly near his home in Orinda, California on March 11, at the age of 97.  

Early in Munroe's 60 year career he studied with Ansel Adams, and in 1942 was the Director of Photography at Michigan's Cranbrook Academy of Art.  After serving in WWII Munroe was asked by architect Frank Lloyd Wright to be his designated photographer, but he turned instead to photo journalism.

Munroe credited much of his early success to his work with the midwestern magazines "Farm Quarterly" and "Farm Journal, " where he chronicled America's agricultural explosion as it became a leading producer of the world's food. Feed stores and lumber yards across the country displayed his pig poster:  2 loving, smiling pigs who captured Munroe's love and respect for farm life, as did his photographs in his book, "Changing Faces of Our Land."

In concert with his work, Munroe began working independently on assignments for Life Magazine, National Geographic, and PBS, and in 1955 he moved his family from Mt. Vernon, Ohio to California.

He photographed famous subjects like Louis Bromfield, Georgia O'Keefe, physicist Richard Feynman, Charles de Gaulle, Lyndon Johnson and Eugene McCarthy.   Richard Nixon was photographed holding one of Munroe's photos.  He photographed kidnapper Caryl Chessman on Death Row at San Quentin prison.  And in 1959, he famously photographed Nikita Khrushchev and Adlai Stevenson during Khrushchev's visit to the Iowa farm of Roswell Garst.   His most iconic Life magazine photograph, also in 1959, was of 21 college students cramming into a glass telephone booth at St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA.     His collection is now housed in the Joe Munroe Archival Collection at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio, and can also be seen at www.joemunroephotography.com.

Munroe moved into cinematography and produced award winning film documentaries on agricultural genetics and outdoor adventures.  In 1965, when few people had floated the Grand Canyon, Munroe began running and filming his Colorado River trips, creating Dare The Wildest River, an adventure film of the on-scene Canyon experience while conveying the deeper meaning of rivers as a life form and a hope for ecological care. He also produced the film Showcase of the Ages, about the geology of our earth as revealed in the Grand Canyon.  Both films have appeared on PBS over the years.

Munroe's last film in 1997, Let the Mountains Talk, was an insightful interview of David R. Brower, a founder of the Sierra Club, and expanded Munroe's commitment to the environment. 

From his photographs to his films, Munroe's works of our 20th Century's Americana are meant to showcase a lasting optimism about the strength and magic of our people, our creatures, and our wild places. 

Joe is survived by his wife of an amazing 79 years, artist Virginia C. Munroe, sons Lee and Dean, of Orinda and Redding, respectively, and daughters Ann Stephenson of Sitka, Alaska, and Bonnie Burgess of Santa Barbara as well as 10 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.