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| ........In his earliest work Allan Grant demonstrated the kind of legendary skill and enterprise characteristic of a LIFE photographer. Grant's photograph of V.E. Day in Times Square and the U.S.S. Enterprise entering New York Harbor at dawn in 1945 are haunting images. On election night in 1946 in his campaign headquarters Congressman Joe Martin (long-time Speaker of the House) was captured on film by Grant in what many consider to be one of the finest political studies of all time. The "movie still" clarity and the Norman Rockwell story-telling quality of the Martin photograph were the result of tenacious planning, lighting and arranging. LIFE was, once again, impressed but not surprised. The Joe Martin picture was spread across two pages in the November 18, 1946 issue and within six weeks Allan Grant was made a permanent member of the prestigious LIFE photographic staff. His freelance days were over 18 months after they started. (see interview clip from NBC Television) |
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| .....From the late forties through the fifties and sixties, Grant's cameras were focused on every type of subjet from the poetic 10page photo essay on the life cycle of the Chinook Salmon to the awesome Atom Bomb tests in Nevada in 1951. He has covered fast-breaking news events including stories on the Air Force, the military and the early space launchings. | ||||||||||||||||
| Grant was the first to locate, photograph - (and later "kidnap") - Lee Harvey Oswald's wife, Marina and his mother Marguerite | ||||||||||||||||
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during the confusion of the Kennedy Assassination. This feat appears in the book, PORTRAIT OF AN ASSASSIN by Gerald Ford.) Grant was also the last to photograph Marilyn Monroe. His photographs of Marilyn captured a rare poetic quality despite her inner turmoil at the time. (She died three weeks later.) | |||||||||||||||
| ........The range of his Hollywood work alone is extrordinary. He has photographed many Hollywood personalities including Grace Kelley, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Gregory Peck, William Holden, Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. His best known LIFE cover was a photograph of Shirley MacLaine and her daughter Sachi, taken in February of 1959. It was seen on a Barbara Walters Special, ABC 20/20, CBS 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. ........In the Los Angeles Times review of his first gallery exhibition William Wilson wrote, "Grant has produced a remarkable range of work in this impressive demonstration that one can do a job and create art at the same time." |
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