Grant Collier
Listed in the Western Reflections author directory.
Grant Collier is a Colorado landscape photographer who grew up in the foothills above Denver. His own website says he began working professionally in 1996, after graduating from Pomona College, and has written a run of photography books since. Our author directory lists his name, but no book under it is on our catalogue, so this page rests on his own biography.
About Grant Collier
According to his website, Collier explored the Rocky Mountains as a child and graduated from Pomona College in 1996, the year he began his photographic career. That career followed his family history: his great-great-grandfather, Joseph Collier, was a pioneer photographer in Colorado.
Grant traveled across the state and photographed from the same spots Joseph had used more than a hundred years earlier. The paired views were published as Colorado: Yesterday & Today in 2001. His site says he has since written eleven more photography books, including Colorado Then & Now, Colorado's National Parks & Monuments and Moab, Utah by Day & Night, as well as Collier's Guide to Night Photography. He also produces a Starry Nights wall calendar.
Grant Collier is listed in the Western Reflections author directory and the books under this name are not yet on the site. If this is your page, send us the details and we will add them. In the meantime, the library carries the rest of the catalogue, from regional history to memoir and fiction.
What the books share
Collier's work, as he describes it, returns to Colorado's mountains and parks, to the old photographs of his ancestor, and to the night sky. The 2001 book set his modern views beside Joseph Collier's historic ones, which makes the past of the state visible in a single frame. Later books widen to national parks, Moab, and technique for shooting after dark.
Next steps for readers of this author
Hunting for historic Colorado photographs
Search the Denver Public Library finding aids for photographers' names and place names. Old views often turn up under a town or a mountain rather than a person, so try several spellings.
Planning a night sky trip
Collier writes about night photography, and the Great Sand Dunes page describes the park as a dark sky site. Pick a moonless night, check the park's current alerts before you go, and bring a tripod.
Making your own then and now
Choose one old view of a place you can reach, stand where the camera likely stood, and photograph it today. Note the date, the light and the season so your two pictures can be compared fairly.
Go deeper
Grant Collier's books pair his own Colorado views with the old photographs of his ancestor Joseph Collier, and extend to national parks and the night sky. These pages help a reader find historic images and visit places like those in his work.
Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives
A finding aids search for manuscripts and archives, useful for tracing nineteenth century Colorado photographers and the places they worked.
History Colorado
The state history organization lists its museums and historic sites on its site, including the Colorado History Museum in Denver.
Rocky Mountain National Park
The park's official page, which a photographer can use to check trail conditions and climbing rules before heading into the high country.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Its homepage calls the park an International Dark Sky Park open 24 hours a day, and suggests staying on a moonless night.
Good to know
Does Western Reflections publish Grant Collier's books?
Who was Joseph Collier?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
We have published Colorado and Western writers since 1996, and every submission is still read by a person. Send yours, finished or half written.