Born in New York City, American photojournalist Allan Grant (1919-2008) was introduced to photography as a teenager, when he traded a model airplane for a camera. One of his early jobs was in a Photo laboratory, where he printed photos by noted photographers such as Alfred Eisenstaedt and Robert Capa.

Grant began working for Life in 1945 on a freelance basis. The magazine hired him full-time in 1946, after a photo he took at a Connecticut sailing school made the cover of an issue. He also had the last photo shoot with actress Marilyn Monroe and took the first photos of Marina Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's wife, following U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Grant left Life magazine in the late 1960s and began producing educational documentaries.