Chronicling Everything Cool in Vermont

The son of a logger, Jack spent much of his childhood hunting, fishing, and exploring the north country woods with his dad. His mom worked a factory job, and the family scraped by. His first cameras were a Christmas gift from his mom and a loaner from a family friend. His first job was a freelance gig with the White River Valley Herald. His black-and-white images of the Tunbridge Fair were shot in the 1970s. At the time, pious Vermonters lamented the annual blowout’s beer halls, girlie shows, and late-night brawls, but for a young photographer with an eye for local culture, the Tunbridge Fair was a magical place, and in 1980, Jack Rowell introduced himself to the world with a modest paperback—Tunbridge Fair.

As the youth movement of the 1970s ignited one of the most creative periods in Vermont history, Jack followed with his camera the careers of the Starline Rhythm Boys, Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, singer-songwriter Myra Flynn, folk-rock songwriter Kristina Stykos, blues guitarist Claudia Babral, and other musicians. He photographed artists and their works: the stained-glass installations of Phil Godenschwager, the stone sculptures of Heather Milne Ritchie. He photographed a new generation of farmers and their innovative products: maple creemees, country-chic wedding venues, independent films. He became a chronicler—and a champion—of cool stuff made in Vermont.

Some of Jack’s best-known portraits date from the mid-nineties, when Tunbridge sheep farmer and filmmaker John O’Brien hired him as an associate producer for Man with a Plan, a comedy based on the uneasy relationship between native Vermonters and flatlanders. The film starred Fred Tuttle, John’s neighbor, an old-school dairy farmer who stood barely five feet tall. Fred played himself, a Vermont farmer who runs for Congress because he needs a job. In publicity stills, Jack portrayed him in front of the Capitol Building, hand on his heart, and watching a girlie show on TV. Bumper stickers urging people to “Spread Fred” appeared on cars all over Vermont. With a little boost from the governor, the film became a hit.

Capturing Joy

In 2023, with his 70th birthday looming, Jack decided it was time to publish another book. The goal: a large-format, beautifully bound volume of portraits spanning the whole of his career. He began sifting through 50 years’ worth of film and digital images, selecting the best of the best. He and his longtime friend Kate Mueller worked for months on the design. Korongo Books, a small press that grew out of a Vermont art gallery, came up with the financing. Then, because the publishers wanted the book to say “proudly made in New England,” the files went to Lewiston, Maine, where the folks at Penmor Lithographers began preparing the first set of proofs.

President Coolidge, a Vermont native, was speaking at a time of loss when he reminded Vermonters of their “indomitable spirit.” It has been Jack’s gift, as a lifelong observer of his native state, to capture that resilience in face after face. More than that, he has insisted on the connection between strength and bliss. One hundred years from now, when we look back on this era, five decades straddling the year 2000, and wonder who we were, how we lived, and what we loved, we will find some of the answers in the work of a photographer whose overriding theme was joy.