David Grant Noble is a photographer and writer whose focus is the history and archaeology of the American Southwest. Living the Ancient Southwest is an anthology about the Southwest’s deep history. In the Places of the Spirits, integrates his photography and writing about the Southwest and its ancient cultures. A revised and expanded 4th edition of his best-selling guidebook, Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest, introduces readers to more than a hundred archaeological sites that are open to the public. His most recent book, published in 2020, is Saigon to Pleiku: A Counterintelligence Agent in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, 1962-1963.
In 1962-63, while in the army, David photographed Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands (Vietnam, 1962). Later, he photographed Mohawk high-steel workers in New York City (Mohawk steelworkers) and Ojibwe wild rice harvesters in Wisconsin and Minnesota (The Ojibwe and wild rice).
Besides writing and photographing, he has worked as a ranch hand, roughneck, roustabout, teacher, newspaper reporter, lecturer, house builder, and archaeological guide. These varied experiences have helped inform his views of life and his creative work.
