Peter Peryer (1941 - 2018)
Peter Peryer, Untitled (from Reflections assignment, Photo-Forum 22, (October/November 1974)
Peter Peryer (1941 - 2018)
Peter Peryer, untitled, from Gone Home, 1975–6. Photo-Forum 33 (August/September 1976). p. 16.
Peter Peryer was one of New Zealand’s most esteemed photographers. In 1987 he was awarded a Fulbright to study photography in the United States. In 1997, he received the honour of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). Three years later in 2000 he was a recipient of the inaugural Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In his early years of photography—a vocation that came to him in his early thirties—he found community and insight in the PhotoForum collective. His early work received considerable attention in PhotoForum magazine. Notably, his first published photograph was in the Photo-Forum Assignment 3 exercise in the 1974 October/November issue, which called for submissions based on the theme of “reflections.” Excerpts from his iconic Mars Hotel and Gone Home portfolios were published in Photo-Forum August/September 1976. Introversion—the inward looking gaze—characterized his portraits (such as Judith, 1975, and Michael, 1975) in the December 1975/ January 1976 issue. A dialogue around symbols and memories characterized Peryer’s interview with Jim Barr, then-Director of the Dowse Art Gallery, Lower Hutt, which was published in the summer edition of Photo-Forum Supplement 1977/1978. Peryer’s involvement with PhotoForum also included transformative participation in a summer workshop, a brief tenure as Vice President of PhotoForum.Inc., and other volunteer roles, such as with the magazine’s distribution.
Peter Peryer, Self-Portrait, November 1977. Photo-Forum Supplement (Summer 1977/78). p. 9.
A conversation between Peter Peryer and Peter Ireland is included in the published history PhotoForum at 40: Counterculture, Clusters, and Debate in New Zealand by Nina Seja (Rim Books, 2014).
Peter Peryer with one of his best known self-portraits at Bowerbank Ninow, Auckland, 24 May 2018. Photo by Geoff Short.
We will continue to update this page with links to tributes and articles about Peter as they are published.
A Passion Play Peter Ireland writes about Peter Peryer for PhotoForum, 18 December, 2018
Robert Leonard, Chief Curator of City Gallery Wellington, remembers Peter Peryer, 20 November, 2018.
Peter Peryer, photographer (1941 - 2018) Athol McRedie, Te Papa Blog
New Zealand photographer Peter Peryer has died aged 77 New Zealand Herald, 20 November 2018
Photographer Peter Peryer Reflects On His Work & Upcoming Auction Viva, 23 May, 2018
Peter Peryer: The Searcher. Essay by Andrew Clark published by Bowerbank Ninow, May 2018
A Careful Eye - Peter Peryer. Essay by Megan Dunn published in The NZ Listener, 23 August 2014
