View XML QR Code

John Suiter photography collection, 1988-2009

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Suiter, John.
Title
John Suiter photography collection
Dates
1988-2009 (inclusive)
Quantity
10 Boxes, (8.7 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_P0375
Summary
RELATED COLLECTION: JOHN SUITER PAPERS, COLL MSS 480. The John Suiter photography collection consists of 1,863 35mm negatives, prints, and supporting documentation used in the creation of three projects by John Suiter: "Rumors of Kerouac" (sometimes titled "Jack Kerouac's America") - a photography exhibit of Kerouac-related images from Lowell, Massachusetts; Mexico, and the North Cascades of Washington State. Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades - Photographs and text by John Suiter. Published by Counterpoint Press in 2002. Gary Snyder: A Life (a work-in-progress). Subject matter includes: the Cascade Mountain peaks of Desolation, Sourdough, Sauk, and Crater mountains; portraits of poets Gary Snyder, Phil Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Nanao Sakaki and others; images of Kerouac-related locales in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts; images of Kitkitdizze, the home of Gary Snyder; portraits of various interview subjects for the Gary Snyder biography project. Also in the collection are the original maquettes that Suiter used in his book proposals for Poets on the Peaks.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

Except where noted, no restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan. Research copies may be obtained from the Special Collections photograph Curator or the Special Collections Department Head, in accordance with specific copying policies of the John Suiter Photograph Collection. Please note: All materials in the John Suiter Photograph Collection are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for publication in any media, including on-line display, without the express written permission of the copyright holder.

Photocopies will be supplied for research use only. No digital scans, and no photographs by any kind of camera in the collection are permitted.

Languages
English
Return to Top

Biographical Note

Writer-Photographer John Suiter was born and spent his early years in the Philadelphia area. He attended Syracuse University from 1965-1968. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he traveled around the United States, writing freelance articles for underground newspapers such as the Berkeley Barb, the Madison Kaleidoscope, the Syracuse Nickel Review, and The Black Panther. He eventually earned a B.A. in American Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 1973. For several years in the mid-1970s and early 80s he worked as a bookseller.

In the mid-1980s, Suiter attended the Art Institute of Boston and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he studied to become a photographer. He began doing free-lance assignment photography work for magazines in the Boston area in 1988. In 1989 he published his first photo-essay entitled, "Kerouac’s Lowell"—a ten-image exploration of the literary landscape of Lowell, Massachusetts, hometown of beat witer Jack Kerouac. This photo-essay, published in Bostonia magazine, earned him a culture grant from the Department of the Interior to create an exhibit of Kerouac-related images for Lowell’s Preservation Commission. "Rumours of Kerouac", opened at the James McNeil Whistler House in Lowell and the Boott Gallery at the Lowell National Historical Park in 1993.

In 1994 and '95, Suiter traveled to Mexico, following the route described by Jack Kerouac in On the Road and Visions of Cody. Photographs from these trips were included in the 1994 group exhibit "Beat Art: Visual Works by and about the Beat Generation" at New York University, and in the award-winning A Jack Kerouac CD-ROMnibus, an early digital multi-media project. Suiter was Associate Producer on that production.

Also in 1995, Suiter added to his Kerouac-related portfolio with pictures from Desolation Lookout in Washington state—the fire-watch cabin that provides the setting for the culminating chapters of Kerouac’s novel, The Dharma Bums. Suiter stayed at Desolation Lookout as a volunteer fire-watcher in the summer of 1995. The photographs he made during that time were later exhibited at the Visitors’ Center of the North Cascades National Park in Newhalem, Washington, and, in subsequent years, at numerous other galleries.

With his experience at Desolation Lookout, Suiter began the transition from being strictly a photographer to a photographer-writer. His first published writing (since 1970) was a 1996 article about Kerouac’s sojourn on Desolation Peak for The Independent in London. In 1997 and ’98 Suiter returned to the North Cacades, expanding his Kerouac project to include Kerouac’s fellow poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. [It was Snyder who encouraged Kerouac to apply for a fire lookout job in 1956 and was the life model for Kerouac’s character "Japhy Ryder" in The Dharma Bums]. In 1997, Suiter met and interviewed Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. After a series of photo-essays, interviews, and correspondence with them, and other San Francisco poets, Suiter published Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades. [Counterpoint Press, 2002]. This book led in turn to Counterpoint contracting Suiter to write the first full-length biography of Gary Snyder, a long-term project on which Suiter is still at work at this writing (2014).

From 1997 to 2006 he taught documentary photography and digital imaging at the New England School of Photography and the Art Institute of Boston. In 2006, Suiter was invited to Logan to present at Utah State University’s Tanner Symposium, "The 1950s, the Beat Generation, & he Power of Expression." In 2007, the university began acquiring Suiter’s photographs and research materials. Suiter’s photographic prints and negatives from that project are in the John Suiter Photography Collection: USU_P0375.

Return to Top

Content Description

The John Suiter photograph collection consists of 1,863 35mm negatives, prints, and supporting documentation used in the creation of "Rumors of Kerouac," Poets on the Peaks," and Gary Snyder: A Life (a work-in-progress). Subject matter includes: the Cascade Mountain peaks of Desolation, Sourdough, Sauk, and their fire lookouts; portraits of poets Gary Snyder, Phillip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Phillip Lamantia, Nanao Sakaki, and others; images of Lowell, Massachusetts, hometown of Jack Kerouac; images from Suiter's Mexico trips of 1994 and 1995; images of Kitkitdizze, the home of Gary Snyder; portraits of various interview subjects and locations for the Gary Snyder project, including photographs from Suiter's Japanese research trips in 2004 and 2006. Also in the collection are the original book layouts for Poets on the Peaks, and fliers and programs from Lowell, Massachusetts for various Kerouac Commemorative events from 1981-2007. Unless otherwise stated, all prints and negatives are in color. Box 3 folder 10 houses the original inventory created by John Suiter which, for a few images, contains additional information.

Images in this collection are a reflection of the Western states and their mountains. The Cascades Mountains contributed significantly to the creative inspirations of the three poets showcased in Poets on the Peaks. The images of Kerouac’s Lowell are equally significant because they reveal the environment in which Jack Kerouac, one of the subjects of the book, was born and raised, revealing visually the influences that pushed Kerouac to the Western mountains in his early adult years.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Except where noted, all photographs in the John Suiter Collection are Copyright John Suiter All Rights Reserved, and may not be reproduced in any manner without his express written permission. The rights holders to any other images may be located through the Curator of Photographs or the Head of Special Collections.

In order to insure copyright protection and high image quality of reproduced photographs, all digital files for reproduction must be obtained from John Suiter. Mr. Suiter can be contacted through the Special Collections Photograph Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: Copyright John Suiter All Rights Reserved. USU_P0375; John Suiter photography collection; Photograph Collections Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_P0375, USUSCA.

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Processing Note

Processed in November of 2008 and May of 2012.

Acquisition Information

Purchased from and donated by John Suiter from 2008-2010

Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Pan American Highway System -- Mexico -- Photographs
  • Photography -- Exhibitions -- Slides

Personal Names

  • Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997 -- Photographs
  • Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 -- Anniversaries -- Photographs
  • Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 -- Anniversaries -- Posters
  • Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 -- Homes and haunts -- Photographs
  • Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 -- Homes and haunts -- Slides
  • Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 -- Photographs
  • Sakaki, Nanao -- Photographs
  • Snyder, Gary, 1930- -- Portraits
  • Suiter, John, 1948-. Gary Snyder -- Photographs
  • Suiter, John, 1948-. Poets on the peak -- Photographs
  • Suiter, John, 1948-. Poets on the peak -- Posters
  • Suiter, John, 1948-. Rumors of Kerouac -- Photographs
  • Suiter, John, 1948-. Rumors of Kerouac -- Slides
  • Whalen, Philip -- Portraits

Geographical Names

  • Cascade Range -- Photographs
  • Desolation Peak (Wash.) -- Photographs
  • Lowell (Mass.) -- Photographs
  • Lowell (Mass.) -- Slides
  • Mexico -- Photographs
  • Mexico City (Mexico) -- Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
  • Negatives (photographic)
  • Postcards
  • Posters

Finding aid/Register created by Mary Kay Gabriel in 2008 and by Daniel Davis in 2012
2012

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West

Loading...
Loading...