Arthur Grace began his photography career in 1972 as a freelance photographer for United Press International in Boston. In 1973, he was hired as a staff photographer working out of UPI's Europe, Africa, and Middle East headquarters in Brussels, where he covered elections in Northern Ireland and the Yom Kippur War in addition to the West African drought of the 1970s. Grace returned to Boston in 1974 to freelance as the New England photo correspondent for the "New York Times". Among the stories he covered were the protests and violence in Boston following court-ordered busing and desegregation efforts in 1974 and 1975.