Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Stephen Cysewski Photographs
Date(s)
Extent
2 boxes
(.8 cubic feet)
2 terabytes
Name of creator
Biographical history
Stephen Cysewski was an American photographer known for his self-described "wandering" style of street photography. Born in Berkeley, California he primarily grew up in the Tacoma area and graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1967. After college, he moved to Alaska as a VISTA volunteer where he lived for a year in the village of Shaktoolik. There he worked many jobs including as a high school counselor for Indian Education at West Anchorage High School. He earned his master’s of Liberal Arts degree from Alaska Pacific University and then was employed as an assistant professor in Information Technology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 1991-2009. He retired as a professor in 2007 and was granted emeritus status. Throughout his life, he traveled the world to such places as Korea, Thailand, Europe, Alaska, and Washington State to take photographs. In 1979 Cysewski traveled to Tacoma where he took hundreds of photographs of the downtown and residential areas in the city. Cysewski passed away at home in Alaska on July 20th, 2020 after battling pancreatic cancer.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Inlcudes digital images and prints of street photography taken primarily in Tacoma and Seattle during the 1970s and 2000s. Also included are oversize photographs, photographic negatives, and photographic slides.