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’ [Vietnam, Cambodia] publishing a featured article on the Mandarin Road [Annam] along with some of his autochrome photos under the title “Under the French Tricolor in Indo-China” [“Along the Old Mandarin Road of Indo-China” and “Under the French Tricolor in Indo-China”, National Geographic 60 – 2, August 1931:152 – 99]. He also went to Burma [Myanmar]and Siam, publishing “ ‘Land of the Free’ in Asia” [National Geographic 65 – 5, May 1934]. We’re still trying to understand why his (color and b&w) photos of Cambodia were never published in the magazine, which also happened to the numerous ones taken in Vietnam (see some of the latter one in the blog Vintage Everyday, 20 Nov. 2025)

In 1960 (National Geographic 117/4, April 1960: 515 – 69), he authored a feature article on Angkor, Angkor, Jewel of the Jungle, completed with original paintings by artist Maurice Fiévet. Moore retired in 1967.

Cambodian actors and dancers in costumes and masks at Angkor Wat, by W. Robert Moore, November 1931. © Robert Moore / GEO Image Collection / Bridgeman Images.

1) A view of Angkor Wat with dancers by W. Robert Moore, 1931. [Corbis] 2) ‘Stage Stars of the Cambodian court’, Royal Ballet dancers at Phnom Penh Royal Palace, 1931, by **Jules Gervais-Courtellemont**. [The photo has been wrongly attributed to W. Robert Moore because it illustrated the latter’s article ‘Under the French Tricolor in Indo-China”, *National Geographic* 60 – 2, Aug 1931, plate IV]. 3) Vietnamese schoolgirls in **Hue**, by W. Robert Moore [via Vintage Everyday]. 4] Monuments of the ancients Chams of Vietnam, by W. Robert Moore, 1931 [*National Geographic*, op. cit., plate I].

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 licensing agency Corbis in 2010 became void when the latter company was taken over by Getty Images. Some of them have recently emerged on the Net as part of GEO magazine photo collection.

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 in *National Geographic*, April 1960.