Peter's profile
Born New York City, 1945.
1959 High School of Art & Design, Photography.
2000 Maryland State Arts Council Grant.
2010 FotoGrafia Festival, Rome, Italy.
Observational from birth, expressive soon after, 50 some since making my first exposure. New York City (Manhattan) born, Subway raised, Public, (Art & Design) High school.
Working on Project:
"R.I.P. BALTIMORE", 12 year project, bringing awareness to the ongoing murder rate in Baltimore City.
Project: "Walls", Examining the interior walls of 'Row Houses' as they briefly appear, externally, after the demolition of the house next to where they stood.
Project: The printing of a body of Black and White images spanning 50 plus years, many of them never in print.
...I was born into a 1 bedroom apartment, where I found my mother, father, and brother. I could see Brooklyn and Queens from the windows, and Manhattan, from South Ferry to above Harlem and the Bronx from the roof. It was the 3 room apartment turned inside out. I was able to leave, looking out of the windows and down on the street. We lived on the corner of a street and an avenue, I loved the movement. Then came the binoculars, out the window watching planes flying towards LaGuardia Airport, and all of Manhattan, and the sunsets over Jersey, silhouetting 150 blocks of buildings with a different sky each night. This was my way of traveling. Along that time came the radio, that was the vehicle for my mind. Stories, music, jazz, gospel, blues, my parents popular, classical, latin, and languages I didn't understand. I just listened to the rhythm, it was as expansive as the sky outside, It fed me.
...Making photographs has always been satisfying for me, and to me. The process is effortless, it's not a job or a profession, or a vocation. It is a state of awareness of my surroundings, or parts of it. It is swimming and dancing in a space that is as large as my vantage point. It is a quiet solitary place where, space is weighed, colors and tones are felt, and time is selected, the finger tip contracts, and an exposure is made. There is a playfulness to letting go and not thinking about the image, just felling it. It is like balancing on narrow footing, you just make balance by moving and finding that spot, the viewpoint. And then the satisfaction is revisited when composing the enlarged image on an enlarging easel, then to see the positive form comes to life in a tray of chemicals. And again looking at the print, or a projection on a screen, I can feel the time and space, the location. or the person's expression again. I do it for me, I look to see, camera or not.
......With the exception of three images in the Reggae Project, these images have never been printed, they exist as negatives, slides, transparencies, or digital files, very few are in contact sheets. After leaving High school my photographic envolvement was in laboratories and machine shops having to do with the design and maintenance of photographic processing machinery. My image making was centered on three of my children, one of which is included in the Children Project. My intentions are to print, show, publish, and share my storytelling.
1959 High School of Art & Design, Photography.
2000 Maryland State Arts Council Grant.
2010 FotoGrafia Festival, Rome, Italy.
Observational from birth, expressive soon after, 50 some since making my first exposure. New York City (Manhattan) born, Subway raised, Public, (Art & Design) High school.
Working on Project:
"R.I.P. BALTIMORE", 12 year project, bringing awareness to the ongoing murder rate in Baltimore City.
Project: "Walls", Examining the interior walls of 'Row Houses' as they briefly appear, externally, after the demolition of the house next to where they stood.
Project: The printing of a body of Black and White images spanning 50 plus years, many of them never in print.
...I was born into a 1 bedroom apartment, where I found my mother, father, and brother. I could see Brooklyn and Queens from the windows, and Manhattan, from South Ferry to above Harlem and the Bronx from the roof. It was the 3 room apartment turned inside out. I was able to leave, looking out of the windows and down on the street. We lived on the corner of a street and an avenue, I loved the movement. Then came the binoculars, out the window watching planes flying towards LaGuardia Airport, and all of Manhattan, and the sunsets over Jersey, silhouetting 150 blocks of buildings with a different sky each night. This was my way of traveling. Along that time came the radio, that was the vehicle for my mind. Stories, music, jazz, gospel, blues, my parents popular, classical, latin, and languages I didn't understand. I just listened to the rhythm, it was as expansive as the sky outside, It fed me.
...Making photographs has always been satisfying for me, and to me. The process is effortless, it's not a job or a profession, or a vocation. It is a state of awareness of my surroundings, or parts of it. It is swimming and dancing in a space that is as large as my vantage point. It is a quiet solitary place where, space is weighed, colors and tones are felt, and time is selected, the finger tip contracts, and an exposure is made. There is a playfulness to letting go and not thinking about the image, just felling it. It is like balancing on narrow footing, you just make balance by moving and finding that spot, the viewpoint. And then the satisfaction is revisited when composing the enlarged image on an enlarging easel, then to see the positive form comes to life in a tray of chemicals. And again looking at the print, or a projection on a screen, I can feel the time and space, the location. or the person's expression again. I do it for me, I look to see, camera or not.
......With the exception of three images in the Reggae Project, these images have never been printed, they exist as negatives, slides, transparencies, or digital files, very few are in contact sheets. After leaving High school my photographic envolvement was in laboratories and machine shops having to do with the design and maintenance of photographic processing machinery. My image making was centered on three of my children, one of which is included in the Children Project. My intentions are to print, show, publish, and share my storytelling.
