Readers of Desert Magazine’s January, 2025 issue undoubtedly found pleasing pause when arriving at the edition’s 20th page, and viewing the spread of color, detail, contrast, and reflection captured of photographer John Henebry.
The onset of the magazine’s “Holes of Consequence” article previewing this year’s American Express golf tournament, this dual-page image was followed by nine exceptional photos that captured the event’s toughest tasks across PGA WEST and La Quinta Country Club.
Tragically, mere days after this January issue was released, John Henebry was killed on New Year’s Day, hit by a driver on Highway-111 while riding his bike. The longtime Rancho Mirage resident was 76 years old.
That his photography brought golf and the game’s landscapes to vibrant life in these recent pages was no exception for Henebry’s work. Since the early 1980s, his images have proven poignant in magazines, books and calendars across the country and around the world.
A native of Chicago, Ill. -- and the son of a famed Air Force Major General John Henebry, who flew 249 missions in the South Pacific during WW II – the photographer’s calling dates to boyhood, with his professional pursuits taking debut shape while traveling the Himalayas and garnering assignments for National Geographic.
A segue to golf work came compliments of Henebry’s sister and partner-in-crime, Jeannine, who lured John back to the States for work she’d secured in La Quinta at budding PGA WEST. A right place/right time job amid the desert’s late-80s golf boom era soon saw “The Henebrys” and their massive 4x5-inch, large-format view camera capturing the light, mountains, mounding and magic of desert golf in film resolution quality which had never before been achieved.
Word of the Henebry sibling’s talents soon spread across fairways both national and global, and the in-demand duo developed relationships and assignments with a cache of leading golf architects, including Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and the former tandem of Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry. The work took them across the country and around the world. Their watermark fast became a symbol of expertise and excellence.
Among the heft of projects, travels, prints and publications, the Henebrys joined a select list of photographers licensed to shoot at Pebble Beach Golf Links, which also purveyed their work.
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For John Henebry, a penchant for adventure, intrepidity, and competition never ceased across a career both singular and decorated. In concert with his lasting golf imagery, Henebry captured myriad national parks and national monuments, and his travels took him to Ethiopia, India, and Nepal for portrait projects. Despite an outward nature which was laid-back and an ever-present grin which professed a spirit both bright and ethereal, Henebry’s core never belied the cutthroat nature of his business, as evidenced by his adoption of new technology. Recent years saw him among the few photographers skilled and veteran enough to operate the Sony Airpeak S1 Professional Drone, the palpable results of which may be viewed in the accompanying slideshow.
Henebry often referred to the “Magic Light,” a reference to capturing the perfect image at the perfect time of desert day. The man behind the lens brought his own light to the golf world and far beyond; and, through the power of his images and imagination, this light shines eternal.
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