W. Robert Moore

William Robert Moore (15 Aug 1899, Butler Township, Michigan — 22 March 1968, Washington, DC, USA) was a staff photographer and writer at the National Geographic during four decades, and the chief of the foreign editorial desk at the magazine .

With a predilection for Asia, where he started to work from 1926, he contributed to nearly 90 magazine articles in the famed publication, as a photographer or a writer. In 1931, he covered ‘French Indochina’ along with French photographer J. Gervais-Courtellemont after publishing featured articles on Burma [Myanmar][National Geographic 60 – 2, August 1931]. In 1960,(National Geographic 117/4, April 1960: pp. 515 – 569), he authored a feature article on Angkor, Angkor, Jewel of the Jungle, completed with original paintings by artist Maurice Fiévet. Moore retired in 1967.

1) A view of Angkor Wat with dancers by W. Robert Moore, 1931. 2) Royal Ballet dancers in Angkor, 1931, by W. Robert Moore.

While several of Moore’s photographs taken in China, Japan, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Tunisia, Austria, etc, can be purchased in high definition online, the ones he took in Cambodia haven’t been released by the National Geographic. The deal concluded by the magazine with photo license agency Corbis in 2010 disappeared when the latter company was taken over by Getty Images.

1) Kwangtung (Hong Kong) in 1932, by W. Robert Moore. 2) W. R. Moore examining an inscription at **Preah Khan** while working on his Angkor feature (along with Maurice Fievet’s illustrations 7in *National Geographic*, April 1960.