Melvin E. Lewis was born February 21, 1917 on a ranch near Mt. Shasta in Redding, California. He grew up as a rancher, worked for the California State Forestry service in 1936, and served as an Army Air Corps pilot during WWII. After the war he was a B-25 flight instructor in Greenville, South Carolina in 1945, soon after, he became a camera salesman in Salt Lake City while pursuing a profession in engineering. He worked as an engineer for Ingersoll-Rand from 1947-1985. All the while he was photographing around the country and around the world, with a keen interest in western subjects, particularly scenes of places of the past. He brings both an artistic and a documentary view to his subjects. In a letter written November 19, 1997, he shared what he believes to be the "whole value of black and white photography, serious black and white photography belongs to those dedicated souls who operate totally on a do-it-yourself basis; from pre-conceiving the image, to tripping the shutter, processing the film, and finishing the final print; by so doing, creating his or her personal artistic expression." Mel is concerned with the past and finds that "black and white photography has fallen far behind the modern pace," as have many of the subjects he photographs in black and white film, namely; abandoned farms, homes, ghost towns, historic artifacts, and landscapes. He has a love for photography, as shown by the wealth of images in this collection, and by the care he takes in framing each subject, paying close attention to all details, and continues to make photographs, even in his 83rd year. In his photography he has the "desire to impart the impression to the viewer the he or she is the first person on that scene; experiencing it alone, undisturbed by any other presence...a desire for the viewer not to see human presence, but rather to feel the presence of those hardy pioneering souls who's integrity, dreams and sacrifices laid out the permanent foundations for the comfortable conveniences which our present day society is built upon. Perhaps then, we would gain a deeper appreciation for those who have passed this way before us and to better understand that the past is just as important to our present as it is to our future," (the letter quoted here can be found in Accn. 1668 and in Bx 1 of this collection).
The first boxes (Bx 1-Bx 12) in the collection contain black and white photographs; Bx 13 and Bx 14 contain black and white negatives, numbers correspond to the photographs in the first 12 boxes; Bx 15- Bx 30 contain 35mm color slides, numbered by box, folder, and page; Bx 31-Bx 45 contain 35mm, 2 1/4x2 1/4, and 4x5 black and white negative. Oversize boxes (Bx 1-Bx 5) contain mounted black and white photographs. In organizing the photographs and slides in this collection the original order and was maintained. The main categories for placing the photos were set by Mel Lewis.
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s
Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Donated by Melvin E. Lewis.
Processed by Kristi Pace in 2000.
See also the Melvin E. Lewis papers (ACCN 1668) located in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.