Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras

It was the first publication of a portfolio of his prints, produced not long after he decided to become a professional photographer, and has since been called "a landmark work in twentieth-century photography.

During these trips he captured large-format black-and-white images of many of the region's well-known features, including King's River Canyon, Muir Gorge, the pinnacles at the headwaters of King's River, Mount Brewer, The Black Kaweah, Mount Ritter, the Minarets, the area around South Fork of the San Joaquin and Evolution Valley.

Bender called his friend Jean Chambers Moore, a well-known publisher who agreed to oversee the production of the portfolio through the then highly respected Grabhorn Press.

The term "parmelian" was a meaningless word invented by Moore, who believed that calling them "photographic prints" would not allow them to be taken seriously as art.

"[4] When the portfolio was published it included the statement "One Hundred and Fifty Copies Printed by the Grabhorn Press, San Francisco, August MCMXXVII".