Griggs, Jim

Jim Griggs has had a lifelong interest in photography. He first used his mother’s camera at age seven and got his first personal camera, a Brownie Hawkeye with flash attachment, at age nine. Jim studied with Ansel Adams and other well-known photographers at Yosemite workshops, and served as teaching assistant at several Yosemite workshops while otherwise employed as an aerospace engineer in California.
Photography brought Jim to Hawai‘i in late 1974. He arrived just in time to help with the original opening of Volcano Art Center by cleaning, sweeping, hammering, and making display lighting from coffee cans.
Jim had his first formal photographic exhibits in Hawai`i in 1975. From 1979 to 1992, he served as staff photographer at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. As such, he was privileged to be a daily witness of all of Kilauea’s major activities. Most notably, Jim was able to document the years of Pu`u `O`o’s most spectacular fountains.
Jim is represented in the collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. He uses 35mm, 6×7 and 4×5 formats, and established his digital ‘darkroom’ early in 2003.
Jim’s images are giclée prints using pigmented archival inks on acid-free paper with archival mounting and framing. They will not fade as color photographs do. Unframed prints can be ordered.