Peter Marlow (photographer)

Peter Marlow (19 January 1952 – 21 February 2016) was a British photographer and photojournalist, and member of Magnum Photos.^[1]

Career

Born in Kenilworth, England in 1952, Marlow studied psychology at Manchester University, graduating in 1974.^[2] He began his photography career in 1975 working on an Italian cruise liner in the Caribbean before joining the Sygma news agency in Paris in 1976.^[3] In the 1970s, Marlow worked in Northern Ireland, Angola, The Philippines and Lebanon primarily as a war photographer, but soon found that the competition of photojournalism did not suit him.

I did get some very good pictures, and was doing a lot of conflict work, but I just realised I was never ever going to be Don McCullin. And actually, in certain situations, I was very, very scared.^[4]

He returned home to Britain, and worked in Liverpool on an eight-year project, Liverpool – Looking out to Sea, which documented what he perceived to be decline of the city under Margaret Thatcher.^[4]

He became associated with Magnum Photos in 1980 and became a full member in 1986, having been attracted to the freedom the agency gives its photographers to work on personal projects.^[4][1][5] Alongside Chris Steele-Perkins, he founded Magnum's London office in 1987.^[1] He served as the agency's president twice and was vice-president numerous times.^[1] The photographer Martin Parr said it was "difficult to overestimate" Marlow's contribution to Magnum".^[1]

He also worked regularly for The Sunday Times in the mid-1980s.^[1] In 1991 he received an assignment from the Somme department in France to photograph Amiens.^[6] Later he began to work abroad again, travelling to Japan, the United States, and other parts of Europe.^[7] His later photography is primarily in color.^[8] Though well known for his depictions of places, Marlow also documented politics with a collaboration with Tony Blair.^[3]

Marlow is also known for his photos of his three sons and wife.^[2]

Marlow died on 21 February 2016 from influenza contracted during a stem cell transplant as a treatment for multiple myeloma.^[9][10]

Publications

Books by Marlow

• Liverpool: Looking out to Sea. London: Jonathan Cape/Random House, 1993. ISBN 0-224-03727-7; ISBN 0-224-03728-5
• Concorde: The Last Summer. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006. ISBN 978-0-500-51312-5. With a preface by A. A. Gill and an introduction by Mike Bannister.
  • Concorde: le dernier été. Paris: Thames & Hudson, 2006. ISBN 9782878112832. Translated by Joëlle Marelli.
• The English Cathedral. London and New York: Merrell, 2012. ISBN 9781858945903. With an introduction by Martin Barnes and other text by John Goodall.
• English National Ballet: Breaking New Ground. London: Magnum Photos, 2015. ISBN 978-0956547842.
• Undercover Spitalfields: Market Stories. London: Magnum Photos, 2013. ISBN 9780956547835. With Ballymore Group.

Books with others

• Département Somme: regards de photographes. Amiens: Trois Cailloux, 1992. ISBN 2903082669. Photographs by Marlow, Harry Gruyaert, Jeanloup Sieff, Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt, Martine Voyeux and Hugues de Wurstemberger; prefaces by Christian Caujolle and Jacques Darras.
• Way to Gods: Magunamu Foto: Kumano kodō, Santiago e no michi (WAY to GODS　マグナム フォト　熊野古道 サンティアゴへの道), ed. Nagasaka Yoshimitsu (永坂嘉光). Tokyo: Kawade Kobō Shinsha, 1999. ISBN 4-309-90293-6. (Additional title on front cover: Ancient Kumano Roads and Roads to Santiago.) Contains photographs by Marlow of Kumano kodō and camino de Santiago; as well as photographs by Elliott Erwitt, Chris Steele-Perkins and Harry Gruyaert.
• The Shape of a Pocket. London: Bloomsbury, 2001. With John Berger.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Filmography

• 1989: Moving Stills, Channel 4, UK.
• 1992: Waiting for Madonna (documentary, 15 min, directed by Marlow), TV Tokyo, Japan/Little Magic Productions USA.
• 1994: Profile of Peter Marlow, The Late Show, BBC, UK.

Awards

• 1982: Arts Council of Great Britain.^{[citation needed]}
• 1986: National Headline Award.^{[citation needed]}
• 1988: The Photographers' Gallery.^{[citation needed]}
• 1999: III Premio de Creación Fotográfica Luis Ksado.^[11]
• 2006: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.^[12]

Exhibitions

• 1979: The Ultra Right in Europe, The Canon Gallery, Amsterdam.
• 1983: London by Night, The Photographers' Gallery, London.
• 1987: Peter Marlow's London Night Photos, Lausanne, Switzerland.
• 1989: Liverpool, Il Diaframma, Milan.
• 1993: Looking Out to Sea, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; The Photographers' Gallery, London.
• 1993: Brighton Besides the Seaside, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
• 1994: Looking Out to Sea, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.
• 1998: Non Places, Keynes Gallery, Canterbury, UK.
• 1999: Ancient Kumano Roads Japan and the Road to Santiago de Compostela Spain, Galleries in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Wakayama, Japan.
• 2000: Britain, Saison Photographique Cherbourg Octeville, France.
• 2001: Nantes, ABN AMRO Gallery Nantes, France.
• 2009–2010: London at Night, The Wapping Project Bankside, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London.^[13][14]
• 2011: Point of Interest, The Wapping Project Bankside, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London.^[15][16]
• 2013: The English Cathedral, The Wapping Project Bankside, Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London.^[17][18]

Collections

Marlow's work is held in the following public collections:

• Museum of London, London.
• Imperial War Museum, London.
• Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
• The Arts Council of Great Britain, UK.
• The Photographers' Gallery, London.
• Centre national de la photographie, Paris.
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
• Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.
• Institute Valenciano Arte Moderne, Valencia, Spain.
• The National Portrait Gallery, London.
• Archive of the Birmingham City Library, Birmingham, UK.
• Magnum Photos Collection, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, TX.^[19]

References

External links

• Marlow's profile at Magnum Photos

This page was last edited on 25 July 2023, at 18:24