Biography
Pete Turner, Giraffe, 1964
Pete Turner, Giraffe, 1964

Pete Turner (1934-2017) was born in Albany, New York. A pioneer of color photography,  Turner's career began during the infancy of color photography, at a time when color was used almost exclusively for commercial purposes. Unlike many contemporaries, Turner embraced color, seizing opportunities that allowed him to master the process and to create the imagery he felt compelled to make. Unconcerned with the labels of "art" or "commercial," he has deftly created a life's work that blurs these boundaries.

 

Turner achieves his vision by combining the technical tools of photography with a perceptive eye for compositional color. Learning to manipulate hue and saturation early in his career, Turner created photographs that looked unlike anything previously seen, such as Giraffe. Over the years, he has continued to push the medium of photography by employing an impeccable sense of timing and a long-running fascination with geometry and surrealism.
 
Turner's passion for photography has brought him innumerable awards from various design groups and photography associations, including The Outstanding Achievement in Photography award from the ASMP.  In 1986, Harry Abrams published his first monograph, Pete Turner Photographs. His second monograph, Pete Turner African Journey (Graphis, 2001), is the visual diary of Turner's adventure in Africa, which began with his first journey in 1959 from Cape Town to Cairo. His most recent book, The Color of Jazz, is a comprehensive collection of his memorable and provocative jazz album covers that have become legendary (Rizzoli, 2006). 
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