Kolb Studio Today
Today the Kolb Studio sits at the head of the Bright Angel Trail, just like it did in 1904. The house, which has been developed and restored over the years, is a monument to the brothers’ achievement and influence at Grand Canyon. The Studio now houses a gift shop, incredible views, as well as a gallery of fine art and artifacts. Emery and Ellsworths’ photographic contributions live on through the playing of their Colorado River film, just as it did when the past was present.
Emery operated the studio and intermittently worked as a guide, consultant, and search & rescuer until his death, in 1976, at the age of 96. He was the last of the early pioneers, making his home for 73 years inside the little brown wooden house that he built with his brother.
In the year 2020, photography and the Grand Canyon go hand-in-hand. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tourist who isn’t furiously working their camera. And with good reason! The Canyon is one of the most photogenic places in the world. Its mystery and depths are capable of instilling a dizzying sense of awe and grandeur, unlike any other place. Shadows seemingly dance across the colored sandstone towers, spires, mesas, and buttes below the rim, as the sun lowers on the horizon. Seasonal storms bring towering clouds, sheets of rain and lightning in summer, snowstorms in winter.
And whether visitors know it, or not, this simple activity of making photographs at Grand Canyon can be traced back to a couple of brothers from Pennsylvania, and their pursuit to document their home and its surroundings. A home that still stands to this day, at the top of that ancient old trail towering over the Grand Canyon somewhere out in the high desert dust of Arizona.