Roy Pinney

Roy Pinney (born Pinyehrae Schiffer on August 13, 1911 in New York City) is a herpetologist, professional photographer, writer, spelunker and pilot. He lives in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

Family History and Name Change

Roy Pinney was born in 1911 as Pinyehrae Schiffer to Polish immigrant father Max Schiffer and mother Sarah Schiffer on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. At the age of 18 he Americanized his conspicuously Polish/Jewish name by altering his first name Pinyehrae into the last name Pinney and adopting the American first name Roy.

Herpetology

Pinney is a world traveling herpetologist who has collected venomous and non venomous snakes the world over. For years he was an active member of the New York Herpetological Society [http://www.nyhs.org/] , serving as that organization's president for 8 years.

Photography and Films

In 1929 at the age of 18 Pinney became a freelance photographer and journalist for the Brooklyn section of the New York Daily News. In 1944 he became a war correspondent when he covered the D-day invasion of "Omaha beach" Normandy, France for Liberty magazine. He went on to cover more than a half dozen wars and conflicts around the world including conflicts in Afghanistan, Guiana, Spanish Morocco and South Africa. In 1973 Pinney also photographed and reported on the Yom Kippur War in Israel.

In 1962 Pinney won the award for best Commercial Film at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2002 Pinney's photograph of a hand reading braille was displayed in the Guggenheim Museum as part of a photography exhibition on hands.

In 2007 Pinney's photograph of two swimmers underwater in a pool appeared in a large coffee table book entitled POOLS by Kelly Klein. The book is published by Rizzoli. The ISBN number is 0-8478-2918-9

Author

Pinney is the author of 24 books including The Snake Book (1981) (ISBN 0-385-13547-5), Vanishing Tribes (1968) (ISBN 0-690-85943-0), Animals of the Bible (1964) (ASIN: B0007DV4UU) and The Complete Book of Cave Exploration. Since their publication all of his books have gone out of print and have not been re-released.

Friends and Associates

Roy Pinney went to elementary school with and was life long friends with Bernard Herrmann who scored Citizen Kane, Psycho, and Taxi Driver. Roy Pinney was also good friends with billionaire Arthur Jones of Nautilus, Inc. exercise equipment fame.