Peter Turner (writer And Photographer)

Peter Turner (1947–2005) was a photographer, curator, and writer. He was the longest-serving editor of ''Creative Camera''.

Life and work

Turner was born in London on 3 February 1947. He studied photography at Guildford School of Art (now University for the Creative Arts) between 1965 and 1968.Paul Hill,
Peter Turner, Influential editor of ''Creative Camera''
, ''The Independent'', 9 August 2005.David Brittain, "Peter Turner 1947–2005," Afterimage, Sept–Oct 2005, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p4David Brittain's obituary for Afterimage Journal is reproduce
by Roy Hammans at http://www.fine-photographs.co.uk/
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He began working at ''SLR magazine'' where he learned the journalist's trade and encountered ''Creative Camera''. In 1969, following the departure of founding editor Bill Jay, Turner became assistant editor to ''Creative Cameras founder and publisher, Colin Osman. David Brittain, writing in Afterimage Journal, said "Over the next nine years ''Creative Camera'' became a pillar of the support structure for photography in the United Kingdom and a byword for good taste". He left ''Creative Camera'' in 1978 to set up with his partner, Heather Forbes, the short-lived photographic publisher Travelling Light in 1980 in Putney. Its publications included the first edition of Chris Steele-Perkins' ''The Teds.'' In 1986, with Travelling Light in financial difficulties, Turner returned to ''Creative Camera'' as editor, welcoming colour photography ("by championing younger documentarists such as Paul Graham, Martin Parr, Paul Seawright, Anna Fox, and emerging transcendental formalists including Peter Fraser") and tolerating the photographic work of "fine artists".

Turner curated photography exhibitions for the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Barbican Art Gallery, London (notably ''American Images: Photography 1945 to 1980'' in 1985, with John Benton-Harris) and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. He edited a number of photography books and his own photography was exhibited in the Side Gallery in Newcastle.

In 1991, Turner left ''Creative Camera'' and Britain, moving with Forbes to New Zealand. He taught at the Wellington School of DesignThe Wellington School of Design is a predecessor of the College of Creative Arts within Massey University.
Merger with Wellington Polytechnic
, Massey University. Retrieved 27 January 2014. and wrote for ''The New Zealand Journal of Photography.''

After suffering from multiple sclerosis, he died in Wellington on 1 August 2005.

Paul Hill writes that Turner "will always be remembered for the 'creative years' of ''Creative Camera''".

In 2008 the School of Fine Arts at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand established the annual Peter Turner Memorial Lecture and Peter Turner Memorial Scholarship in memory of Turner. The lecture "brings an internationally significant photographic historian, theorist or artist to Wellington to deliver the lecture". The scholarship is "awarded once each year to an exceptional candidate wishing to advance their photographic work through a period of postgraduate study".

Publications by Turner

*''P. H. Emerson: Photographer of Norfolk.'' Godine Photographic Monographs 2. Boston: Godine, 1974. Gordon Fraser Photographic Monographs 2. London: Gordon Fraser, 1974. . With Richard Wood. On P. H. Emerson.
*''Other Eyes: An Exhibition of Photographs Taken in the British Isles.'' London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976. .
*''American Images 1945–1980.'' Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. . New York: Viking, 1985. .
*''The History of Photography.'' Twickenham: Hamlyn, 1987. . Twickenham: Hamlyn, 1988. . New York: Exeter, 1987. . Greenwich: Brompton, 1990. .
*''Photo Texts.'' London: Travelling Light, 1988. . With Gerry Badger. Essays.
*''Photography and Paradox.'' Wellington: New Zealand Centre for Photography, 1999. . Essays.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Peter
English art critics
English curators
British emigrants to New Zealand
Photography academics
Photography critics
Photography curators
Photographers from London
English book publishers (people)
English magazine editors
New Zealand photographers
Academic staff of Massey University
Writers from London
1947 births
2005 deaths
English male non-fiction writers
Historians of photography
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English businesspeople