Collections

Stephen T. Miles Collection

Stephen T. Miles is a Boulder-based photographer and was a close friend of Allen Ginsberg and other writers at Naropa University. Throughout a period of almost thirty years Miles documented in photographs the activities of this group of artists. His collection includes photos of Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Stan Brakhage, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Marianne Faithful, Bob Dylan, Bruce Weber and many other notable artists. One of his images of William Burroughs was featured in a catalog for Sotheby's Auction House and subsequently auctioned for $1700. Proceeds went to The Allen Ginsberg Trust. These photographs provide invaluable visual documentation for the Naropa University Archives Writing and Poetics Collection.

The collection is in dire need of being rescued. Miles donated significant portions of his collection to the Naropa University Archives for educational and editorial uses. We are scanning a selection of his negatives that document the activities of the writers represented in the Audio Archive, and will be making these available to scholars and researchers in digital form as well as in hard copies.

This project was supported by a grant from the Collaborative Digitization Program.

Click on the image to see an endorsement of Stephen Miles by Allen Ginsberg