RANDOLPH, Vt. (WCAX) – Jack Rowell has captured tens of thousands of images during his 50-plus-year photography career, and some of them are now on display at the White River Crafts Center in Randolph.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, to me, she looks like she\u2019s reminiscing,\u201d Rowell said, describing one of his portraits.<\/p>\n
From studio pictures to down-to-earth folks, the 70-year-old photographer has documented it all. Photography has opened doors for Rowell throughout his career. \u201cGets me places and meet people that I never would,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a 12-year-old growing up in Groton, he started focusing on people of rural Vermont. His images are sometimes gritty but always real, much like Rowell himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never finished high school,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have enough credits, cause I spent too much time doing what I wanted to do. I never was a good student. And also it was the early \u201970s, so I was partying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowell also drank heavily and smoked up to four packs a day. He gave up cigarettes and alcohol decades ago. \u201cOnce I get into something, I dive in headfirst,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But photography has always been his passion.<\/p>\n
Reporter Joe Carroll: Talk about who you like to photograph.<\/p>\n
Jack Rowell: Well, usually when I\u2019m asked that question, I say my favorite things to photograph are big fish and good-looking women.<\/p>\n
And Fred Tuttle, a renowned retired dairy farmer from Tunbridge who became a star of the quirky 1996 Vermont independent film \u201cMan With a Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent my whole life in the barn, now I want to spend a little time in the house,\u201d Tuttle said in the film, which documents Tuttle\u2019s folksy campaign run for Congress against a slick career politician. <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, he loved it, oh my goodness,\u201d said Rowell, who served as associate producer on the film. \u201cI became an associate producer because I had a light meter and the director didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpread Fred\u201d became a slogan in Vermont and beyond and also led to Tuttle\u2019s real campaign for the U.S. Senate two years later, which mirrored the movie in many ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI photographed him twice for People magazine,\u201d Rowell said. \u201cAnd I knew how to photograph Fred, Fred didn\u2019t always photograph good.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the last three years, Rowell has been looking at his past work in an effort to make a coffee table book \u2014 his first. \u201cThe book is \u2018Jack Rowell Photographs.\u2019 Nice and simple,\u201d he said. It contains 121 images in both color and black and white. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work. I\u2019ve never been very good about cataloging my stuff. So, I have been going through boxes and boxes of old… that have old negatives in them.\u201d<\/p>\n