Jeff Gritchen started his photography career working for the American Red Cross as a disaster relief photographer 1989. In addition to his photojournalism work he does corporate still photography, video and aerial work.
In 1994 he started working for the company that would eventually become the Southern California News Group — first at The Orange County Register, then the Long Beach Press-Telegram, then back to Orange County.
Gritchen has covered everything from the large Cambodian community in Long Beach to a few NBA Championships and a World Series. In 2005 he covered the destruction of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
In 2008 he traveled to Southeast Asia to document a rural Cambodian girl as she traveled to the U.S. for life-altering heart surgery. In 2016 he traveled to China to document the opening of Disney’s newest theme park in Shanghai.
He has won numerous state and national awards, including an international NPPA Best of Photojournalism award. Gritchen served as the Director of Region 10 of the National Press Photographer Association from 1999 to 2005.
He attended California State University, Fullerton, where he graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Photo Communication.