World-famous photographer, journalist and humanitarian John Running, passed away last week after a long battle with brain cancer. He was 77 years old.

The Flagstaff-based photographer was best-known for his fine-art photographs of the Colorado Plateau. His colorful photographic career, which spanned five decades, showcased photos that depicted the region’s unique beauty and its diverse topography and landscapes, but also expressed his own deep intimacy and awe for the place he called home for the last fifty years of his life. His photographs have graced the covers of Outside, Harper’s, and numerous other magazines, as well as calendars, numerous album covers, ads and books.

Running was born in Buffalo, New York in 1939. He took his first trip to the American southwest as a Boy Scout during his teens, an experience that introduced to him just how big and beautiful the world could be.

Running purchased his first camera after pawning a shotgun his father had given him as a present on his twelfth birthday. His photographic skills took a dramatic leap while he was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and was taught how to develop photographs, a skill he became very adept at processing tens of thousands of prints during his tenure in the Marines.

After his time in the Marines he moved to Flagstaff, Ariz. with his first wife, Helen.

Running’s early years in Flagstaff were busy and productive.

He attended Northern Arizona University, where he obtained a degree in anthropology. His burgeoning photography career got an encouraging shot in the arm in 1967 when he won a Flagstaff photography contest. He later opened and operated a photo studio in the city he now called home, and his wife gave birth two Raechel and John Paul.

After Running’s work and career matured, he began leveraging his reputation to shine a spotlight on various injustices he encountered during his travels throughout the Colorado Plateau and the broader world. He took portraits and gathered the stories of Navajos and Hopis who had become displaced from their ancestral homes and their native life and identity.

He noticed similar occurrences among the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and traveled there to document their lives and stories in photograph.

NAU’s Cline Library now holds Running’s photographic archives, some 20 million images.