George Daniell was  best known for his black-and-white photographs of actors, artists and writers. Also a painter, Daniell studied drawing at Yale University and New York's American People's School and Art Students League. He began taking photographs as a teenager in his native Yonkers, New York, and, after graduating from college, became a freelance photographer in New York City and Europe. His work appeared over the years in Time and Life magazines, among others. From 1965 to 1980 he was a contributing photographer for Down East magazine. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Gallery in Washington.

In the summer of 1937, Daniell traveled north to Maine, initially visiting the art colony at Ogunquit before continuing up the coast to Monhegan Island where he honed his photographic skills. Stieglitz thought so highly of Daniell that he assigned him the task of photographing Marin at the artist’s homes and studios in Cliffside, New Jersey, and Cape Split, Maine, leading to some of Daniell’s most renowned pictures. Daniell moved to Trenton, Maine, in 1960, where he focused on his painting.