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Harrison Crandall was influenced as a small boy in Kansas by photographs of the Tetons taken by William Henry Jackson. Crandall was determined to be a photographer, but World War I interrupted his career. He did manage to get formal training in Kansas, and the the Los Angeles School of Art. A job brought him to Boise, and it wasn’t long before he traded the job for a Model T and headed for Wyoming, arriving in the spring of 1922. He spent the summer photographing, and then printing post cards in the sunlight, developing them in a tent, and washing them in lakes. The postcard sales allowed him to survive. He began taking beautiful panoramas and views from his favorite places, and eventually, when Grand Teton National Park was established in 1929, became its official photographer.
Crandall also painted his favorite scenes in oil paint, and some smaller watercolors of wildflowers are known. These works are harder to find than the Teton photographs. Perhaps most desirable of Crandall’s work, however, are the large “Dude Ranch” themed painted photos, which generally involved a cowgirl, her horse, and the Tetons. These are brightly colored and almost look like paintings due to a process which Crandall invented: he developed his photographs at half strength (sometimes using a large washing device he also invented for the huge photos); then he applied heavy paint. These are the most iconic scenes of early Jackson Hole and the west’s Dude Ranch era, and are eagerly sought. They were generally created for promotional purposes, therefore fewer of them exist than the smaller photographs.
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