Draft:Grancel Fitz

Grancel Fitz
Born	August 17, 1894 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	May 12, 1963 (aged 68) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation(s)	Outdoorsman, Commercial photographer
Notable work	North American Head Hunting

William Grancel Fitz (Aug 17, 1894 – May 12, 1963) was an American commercial photographer, author and outdoorsman who was the first person in history to harvest all of the North American big game species recognized at the time by the Boone and Crockett Club.

Early life

Born in 1894 in Philadelphia, Fitz began taking photographs as a hobby around the age of 20, winning his first amateur photography award in 1916. He would go on to win more than 80 awards for photography in the years that followed.

Career

Considered one of the "most successful commercial photographers of his time," his career as a professional illustrator began in the early 1920s when advertising companies first began utilizing photography as a marketing medium. His clients included Pontiac Motors, Chevrolet Motor Company, AT&T, Ivory Soap, Fromm Silver Fox Furs, Florsheim Shoes and Ipana Toothpaste.

In 1929, Fitz moved his studio from Philadelphia to New York City, where he lived much of his life.

From 1924 to 1945, Fitz received eight Art Director Club Awards and served three terms as President of the Society of Photographic Illustrators. His legacy as a commercial photographer has largely been forgotten.

In 1986, a selection of 41 of his advertising photographs, primarily silver-gelatin prints, were exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art.

Style

Fitz became well-known in the advertising world for his innovative photographic style in which he gave less attention to the products themselves and instead focused on those who used them. In a 1931 Lux Flakes soap detergent ad for Lever Brothers, the product is not shown at all, but rather the photograph shows a woman sitting on a couch. In a series of Depression-era advertisements commissioned by Chevrolet, some vehicles were absent in favor of depicting moments in the lives of those who drove them.

His work in advertising photography has sometimes been described as surrealist, often involving the blending of multiple negatives from different photos stitched together to create one seamless image.

Hunting and Conservation

Fitz was an avid outdoorsman who began hunting at the age of 7 in the hills along the Susquehanna River. He previously balanced his professional career with his outdoors pursuits but by 1945 he had mostly left the world of advertising behind and began dedicating his time to big game hunting and conservation.

He helped create the official scoring method used by the Boone and Crockett Club to measure trophies, although he was never a member of the club himself.

Fitz traveled across the globe in pursuit of various game and documented many of his hunts for publications including Sports Illustrated, Field & Stream , and Outdoor Life.

In 1957, he released North American Head Hunting, a collection of essays and articles he had written during his pursuit to become the first person in history to hunt and kill every species of big game in North America that were legal to take at the time. It took him 30 years and 50 trips to achieve this goal. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Fitz said he wanted a "really good representative head of each kind that I would be satisfied with for the rest of my life." He added that once he was successful in taking one of the animals, he would stop hunting that species and move onto the next. Not considered to be much of a firearm enthusiast, Fitz completed the feat using the same rifle, a Remington Model 305 bolt-action .30-06.

His notable kills include a record-class walrus, the eight-largest recorded Alaskan brown bear skull, and a famous elk knowns as the "Grancel Fitz Elk," whose antlers had seven points on one side, nine on the other, and measured 64.25 inches wide.

A conservationist who believed hunting played a critical role in maintaining the health and diversity of species, Fitz writes in the forward to North American Head Hunting, "If we regard the big game species of our continent as a priceless heritage, to be held in trust for future generations, the practical need for wisely controlled hunting is obvious to anyone who looks into the problems of present-day conservation."

Personal Life

Fitz had three children with his first wife, whom he married in 1914. They divorced in 1934 and he remarried Elizabeth "Betty" Sample in 1942. Fitz died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City in May 1948. The New York Times listed his cause of death as a "heart ailment." Fitz previously suffered a heart attack in Brazil while hunting jaguar.

He and his wife are buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.