{"id":49055,"date":"2021-01-25T00:02:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T07:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-photographer-branson-reynolds-dies-at-74\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:45:49","slug":"durango-photographer-branson-reynolds-dies-at-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-photographer-branson-reynolds-dies-at-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango photographer Branson Reynolds dies at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Branson
Branson Reynolds, a Durango photographer, seen here with his dog Aazu, died Jan. 14 after complications from heart surgery. A celebration of life along the banks of the Animas River is planned when conditions permit, probably in August.<\/span>Courtesy of Karyn Gabaldon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango photographer Branson Reynolds, known for his love the mountains, deserts, rivers and Indigenous people of the Four Corners, died Jan. 14 after suffering complications from heart surgery.<\/p>\n

Branson, 74, was popular among hobbyists with cameras for the multi-day workshops he led to sharpen their skills. He was especially found of landscape photography around the Four Corners and documenting the Native American cultures of the region\u2019s tribes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great observer of things,\u201d said his friend Paul Ambrose, who recently moved to Brookings, Oregon, but lived for 30 years in Durango, where he met Reynolds in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could walk around the canyons with him, and he would say, \u2018OK, if I were an Anasazi I would be posted on lookout up there, where I could see the whole canyon, and I\u2019d probably be making arrowheads.\u2019 We\u2019d hike up there, and sure enough it would have a really good view and chipped stone was all over the place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Reynolds had a Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma and Master\u2019s Degree in Biology from Colorado State University.<\/p>\n

Ambrose said Reynolds attraction to Southwest Colorado came when he was photographing ancestral Puebloan artifacts for cataloging at the University of Colorado in Boulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Anasazi stuff kept coming, and he grew more and more fascinated by it, and he wanted to see where it was coming from.<\/p>\n

Reynolds\u2019 fascination with ancestral Puebloan artifacts led him to move first to Santa Fe and eventually to Durango, Ambrose said.<\/p>\n

Once he was settled in Durango, Branson would take longer and longer field trips around the Four Corners to photograph landscapes, ancestral Puebloan sites and to photo document life in Native American reservations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery cool place we know in the Southwest is because of Branson.\u201d Ambrose said, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. I don\u2019t know how many trips we took with him, it must have numbered in the hundreds. If there was a highway that went where he was going or if there were 15 back roads that would get you to the same place, he would always take the back roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambrose said Branson eventually would spend more and more time out in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d be out in the bush in his little Jeep, writing and shooting photographs for weeks at a time. And he just learned to became one with the vibe of the land and the people who lived there before him,\u201d Ambrose said.<\/p>\n

In later years, as Reynolds lost his ability to immerse himself in extended Four Corners trips, he found solace in caring for his dogs, said his stepson Justin Myers. His last three dogs were Aazu, Kenda and Akitzu.<\/p>\n

Reynolds was a friend of Annie\u2019s Orphans, a no-kill canine shelter in La Plata County. He frequently photographed the dogs to help them get adopted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBranson was an incredibly kind person, and that\u2019s his most redeeming quality. It is why so many people in Durango knew him. He had a profound love for nature and animals,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n

Reynolds\u2019 photography and written works were published in thousands of publications nationwide, including The New York Times<\/em>, Los Angeles Times<\/em>, and The Washington Post<\/em>, Myers said.<\/p>\n

In accordance with Reynolds\u2019 wishes, a celebration of life is planned on the banks of the Animas River when conditions permit, likely in August.<\/p>\n

To receive information about the celebration of life, email his stepson Lawrence Myers at lawrence.myers@colorado.edu<\/a>. In lieu of cards or flowers, donations are requested to Annie\u2019s Orphans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to his stepsons, Reynolds is survived by a granddaughter and several nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct a headline in which Branson Reynolds\u2019 first name was misspelled.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

centered on an appreciation and fascination for the Four Corners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[255,13,28,29,822],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-death-and-dying","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-photography"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87511,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49055\/revisions\/87511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49055"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}