I was born on Staten Island to an orphaned Coastguardsman and a daughter of Italian immigrants. I spent my youth and early adulthood living in Kearny, NJ. Fortunately I discovered photography in high school, which gave me a way to engage with the world. Up to that point, I was lost in a sea of ambiguity, hiding in plain site, unsure, insecure and at loose ends. Photography saved my life. In time, I found my voice, learned to trust my instincts and follow my interests and passion.
Although I have always made my living by making photographs for others, I have always also made photographs to satisfy only myself. The images on this web site are my personal work.
I am currently the staff photographer at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ. I also work for a variety of clients on a freelance basis shooting products, architecture, interiors, portraits, and all types of events. Before joining the staff at Montclair State, I made images for corporate annual reports, advertising, magazines, text book publishers and public relations. I was a staff newspaper photographer for 3 years in NJ and freelanced for the NY Times for about 5 years.
I have been heavily involved with digital imaging since 1996. However with a long background in traditional film workflow, my goal with digital is to keep it looking film like. For clients I use digital capture only, and for personal work I shoot film, which I scan directly from to make digital C-prints or archival pigment ink prints.
PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS, FEATURES AND PUBLICATIONS
2012
-*Puffin Foundation Grant Recipient for "The Dream"
-Featured in "The Essentials of Street Photography" and "Street Photography Conversations" e-books by James Maher
-Group Exhibition: Looking at Ourselves: Portraits featured on Lenscratch, curated by Aline Smithson, a PROJECTED exhibition at the Guate Photo Festival in Guatamala http://www.guatephoto.org/index.php.
-Featured on Eric Kim's Street Photography Blog in an interview by Ollie Gapper: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/01/mike-peters-and-the-american-dream/#comments
2011
-Symposium Participant: Imagination in the Post - 9/11 World: How Have We Changed?
http://www.montclair.edu/creativeresearch/post911project/index.html
-Solo Exhibition - Photographs From September 11, 2010 at LUNASA, NYC, September - December
-Group Exhibition - From Distant Streets: Contemporary International Street Photography curated by Richard Bram at Galerie Hertz, Louisville, KY, October - November
-Web Feature: Interview on Street Reverb Magazine by Bryan Formhals
http://streetreverbmagazine.com/2011/09/03/mike-peters-the-dream/
-Web Feature: Fraction Magazine by David Bram - Issue #22 on 1/1/2011 http://www.fractionmagazine.com/artist/mikepeters
-Web Feature: Lenscratch Blog by Aline Smithson - Your Favorite Images of 2010 on 1/1/2011 http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2010/12/your-favorite-images-of-2010_31.html
2010
-Web Feature: Lenscratch Blog by Aline Smithson http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2010/07/mike-peters.html
-Web Feature: Montclair State University Creative Research Blog by Neal Baldwin https://blogs.montclair.edu/crdirector/2010/08/21/mike-peters-photographs-the-dream-living-images-of-our-post-911-world/
-Web Feature: Cinemafia Blog by Alex Wichman http://cinemafia.net/interviews/mike-peters/
-Web Feature:Quoted on the Nowhere Man Blog by Andrew Stark http://starkstreetphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/wise-words-indeed-mike-peters.html
2009
-Web Feature: Mike Peters on Conscientious, Joerg Colberg's weblog about fine-art photography. http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2009/02/mike_peters/
-Web Feature: Mike Peters: What Was He Thinking? On B - Rumblings From The Photographic Hinterlands by Blake Andrews on Blogspot. http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2009/01/mike-peters-what-was-he-thinking.html
2008
-Nicaragua. This is a series of photographs resulting from a two week trip to Nicaragua were I was documenting a group of students who were on a Witness for Peace delegation. Two bodies of work were produced, one featuring village life in El Regadillo, and the other in the more urban settings of Managua and Grenada. Images from each have been published on the MSU web site and magazine.
-Group Exhibition: The Pierro Gallery, South Orange, New Jersey from April 6 - May 25
"Is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?" Various photos taken in Paterson and Ridgefield Park, NJ.
-Group Exhibition: Brooklyn Museum: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition, featured image: ConeyIsland_videoman, 2007
"Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum's visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process. Taking its inspiration from the critically acclaimed book The Wisdom of Crowds, in which New Yorker business and financial columnist James Surowiecki asserts that a diverse crowd is often wiser at making decisions than expert individuals, Click! explores whether Surowiecki's premise can be applied to the visual arts is a diverse crowd just as wise at evaluating art as the trained experts?"
-Solo Exhibition: Caldwell Library: Times Square Gym photos from 1992. December, 2008.
2007
-Coney Island Summer.
-Web Feature: Invited Guest: Mike Peters, Coney Island 2007, On the F Blog, by Gruppo F
-Web Feature: Comments, Kalvar, PDFs, Peters, Koudelka-tube, On the 2 point 8 blog by Michael David Murphy
-Street Photography, capturing whatever life has to offer, usually within 25 miles of my front door. This is an ongoing project started in 2003.
-Solo Exhibition: The Paterson Museum, Paterson, NJ, solo exhibition: April - May 2007
2006
-Street Photography.
-Group Exhibition: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK. Crosswalks: Contemporary Street Photography
-Solo Exhibit: I AM: Portraits of people in an environment of their choosing, part 2. Life Hall, Montclair State University.
2004
-Street Photography.
-Invited guest at the Photographic Salon of the Polish-American Photographic Club at the Consulate General of The Republic of Poland, NYC.
2003
-Solo Exhibit: I AM: Portraits of people in an environment of their choosing, part 1. Life Hall, Montclair State University.
1980 - 2000
-Street Portraits: A series of large format portraits of people that I have met while walking around Kearny and Harrison NJ, and NYC.
1999 - 2000
-The Hilltop: Photographs of an Essex County, NJ psychiatric hospital site.
-Solo Exhibit: July - August 2000 at Gallery 214, Montclair, NJ, Solo Exhibition.
-Solo Exhibit:April - May 2001 at Broadway Gallery, Passaic County Community College, Paterson, NJ. Solo Exhibition.
1992
-Times Square Gym. Boxing gym on 42nd Street and Broadway in NYC.
-Democratic Convention From Across 8th Ave, NYC.
1991
-Stella Wright Homes. Scenes from a public housing project in Newark, NJ.
1988
-The Guardian Angels of Newark and Jersey City, NJ. Published in the Jersey Journal.
1986
-Twilight of a Tradition. Photos of a dairy farming family in Sussex County, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
-Rudolph Buenz. Stained glass artist, Newton, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
1985
-Michael Abboud. Teenager and his family coping with the effects of muscular dystrophy, Frankford, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
1984
-George Quigley. 83 yr. old bicycle repairman, Manville, NJ, published in the Somerset Messenger-Gazette.
-Chris the Greek. Local tattoo artist, Manville, NJ, published in the Somerset Messenger-Gazette.
1983
-Market Street Mission. Alcohol and substance abuse half-way house, Morristown, NJ.
1981
-Sidewalk Santa. Volunteers of America. NYC.
1980
-Tug Boat. A life on the water in New York Harbor.
1979
-St. Gennaro Festival. Little Italy, NYC.
1978
-Solo Exhibit: Rush Hour. Photographs on the NY/NJ PATH trains. March 1979 at The Photographers Guild, Kearny, NJ.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2000 -
Staff Photographer: Montclair State University.
Responsible for providing photography for all campus wide publications, advertising, public relations and Web use. Examples of my work can be seen here: http://www.mikepeters-photography.com/
1987 -
Freelance Photographer
Corporate, editorial and advertising photography for various clients
1985 - 87
Staff Photographer: The New Jersey Herald, Newton, NJ.
1983 - 85
Staff Photographer: The Somerset Messenger-Gazette, Somerville, NJ.
1979 - 83
Freelance Photographer and Photographers Assistant.
1979
Staff Photographer: Tiffany & Co., NYC.
EDUCATION
1977 - 79
Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC. AAS, Photography.
Although I have always made my living by making photographs for others, I have always also made photographs to satisfy only myself. The images on this web site are my personal work.
I am currently the staff photographer at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ. I also work for a variety of clients on a freelance basis shooting products, architecture, interiors, portraits, and all types of events. Before joining the staff at Montclair State, I made images for corporate annual reports, advertising, magazines, text book publishers and public relations. I was a staff newspaper photographer for 3 years in NJ and freelanced for the NY Times for about 5 years.
I have been heavily involved with digital imaging since 1996. However with a long background in traditional film workflow, my goal with digital is to keep it looking film like. For clients I use digital capture only, and for personal work I shoot film, which I scan directly from to make digital C-prints or archival pigment ink prints.
PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS, FEATURES AND PUBLICATIONS
2012
-*Puffin Foundation Grant Recipient for "The Dream"
-Featured in "The Essentials of Street Photography" and "Street Photography Conversations" e-books by James Maher
-Group Exhibition: Looking at Ourselves: Portraits featured on Lenscratch, curated by Aline Smithson, a PROJECTED exhibition at the Guate Photo Festival in Guatamala http://www.guatephoto.org/index.php.
-Featured on Eric Kim's Street Photography Blog in an interview by Ollie Gapper: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/01/mike-peters-and-the-american-dream/#comments
2011
-Symposium Participant: Imagination in the Post - 9/11 World: How Have We Changed?
http://www.montclair.edu/creativeresearch/post911project/index.html
-Solo Exhibition - Photographs From September 11, 2010 at LUNASA, NYC, September - December
-Group Exhibition - From Distant Streets: Contemporary International Street Photography curated by Richard Bram at Galerie Hertz, Louisville, KY, October - November
-Web Feature: Interview on Street Reverb Magazine by Bryan Formhals
http://streetreverbmagazine.com/2011/09/03/mike-peters-the-dream/
-Web Feature: Fraction Magazine by David Bram - Issue #22 on 1/1/2011 http://www.fractionmagazine.com/artist/mikepeters
-Web Feature: Lenscratch Blog by Aline Smithson - Your Favorite Images of 2010 on 1/1/2011 http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2010/12/your-favorite-images-of-2010_31.html
2010
-Web Feature: Lenscratch Blog by Aline Smithson http://lenscratch.blogspot.com/2010/07/mike-peters.html
-Web Feature: Montclair State University Creative Research Blog by Neal Baldwin https://blogs.montclair.edu/crdirector/2010/08/21/mike-peters-photographs-the-dream-living-images-of-our-post-911-world/
-Web Feature: Cinemafia Blog by Alex Wichman http://cinemafia.net/interviews/mike-peters/
-Web Feature:Quoted on the Nowhere Man Blog by Andrew Stark http://starkstreetphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/wise-words-indeed-mike-peters.html
2009
-Web Feature: Mike Peters on Conscientious, Joerg Colberg's weblog about fine-art photography. http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2009/02/mike_peters/
-Web Feature: Mike Peters: What Was He Thinking? On B - Rumblings From The Photographic Hinterlands by Blake Andrews on Blogspot. http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2009/01/mike-peters-what-was-he-thinking.html
2008
-Nicaragua. This is a series of photographs resulting from a two week trip to Nicaragua were I was documenting a group of students who were on a Witness for Peace delegation. Two bodies of work were produced, one featuring village life in El Regadillo, and the other in the more urban settings of Managua and Grenada. Images from each have been published on the MSU web site and magazine.
-Group Exhibition: The Pierro Gallery, South Orange, New Jersey from April 6 - May 25
"Is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?" Various photos taken in Paterson and Ridgefield Park, NJ.
-Group Exhibition: Brooklyn Museum: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition, featured image: ConeyIsland_videoman, 2007
"Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum's visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process. Taking its inspiration from the critically acclaimed book The Wisdom of Crowds, in which New Yorker business and financial columnist James Surowiecki asserts that a diverse crowd is often wiser at making decisions than expert individuals, Click! explores whether Surowiecki's premise can be applied to the visual arts is a diverse crowd just as wise at evaluating art as the trained experts?"
-Solo Exhibition: Caldwell Library: Times Square Gym photos from 1992. December, 2008.
2007
-Coney Island Summer.
-Web Feature: Invited Guest: Mike Peters, Coney Island 2007, On the F Blog, by Gruppo F
-Web Feature: Comments, Kalvar, PDFs, Peters, Koudelka-tube, On the 2 point 8 blog by Michael David Murphy
-Street Photography, capturing whatever life has to offer, usually within 25 miles of my front door. This is an ongoing project started in 2003.
-Solo Exhibition: The Paterson Museum, Paterson, NJ, solo exhibition: April - May 2007
2006
-Street Photography.
-Group Exhibition: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK. Crosswalks: Contemporary Street Photography
-Solo Exhibit: I AM: Portraits of people in an environment of their choosing, part 2. Life Hall, Montclair State University.
2004
-Street Photography.
-Invited guest at the Photographic Salon of the Polish-American Photographic Club at the Consulate General of The Republic of Poland, NYC.
2003
-Solo Exhibit: I AM: Portraits of people in an environment of their choosing, part 1. Life Hall, Montclair State University.
1980 - 2000
-Street Portraits: A series of large format portraits of people that I have met while walking around Kearny and Harrison NJ, and NYC.
1999 - 2000
-The Hilltop: Photographs of an Essex County, NJ psychiatric hospital site.
-Solo Exhibit: July - August 2000 at Gallery 214, Montclair, NJ, Solo Exhibition.
-Solo Exhibit:April - May 2001 at Broadway Gallery, Passaic County Community College, Paterson, NJ. Solo Exhibition.
1992
-Times Square Gym. Boxing gym on 42nd Street and Broadway in NYC.
-Democratic Convention From Across 8th Ave, NYC.
1991
-Stella Wright Homes. Scenes from a public housing project in Newark, NJ.
1988
-The Guardian Angels of Newark and Jersey City, NJ. Published in the Jersey Journal.
1986
-Twilight of a Tradition. Photos of a dairy farming family in Sussex County, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
-Rudolph Buenz. Stained glass artist, Newton, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
1985
-Michael Abboud. Teenager and his family coping with the effects of muscular dystrophy, Frankford, NJ, published: NJ Herald.
1984
-George Quigley. 83 yr. old bicycle repairman, Manville, NJ, published in the Somerset Messenger-Gazette.
-Chris the Greek. Local tattoo artist, Manville, NJ, published in the Somerset Messenger-Gazette.
1983
-Market Street Mission. Alcohol and substance abuse half-way house, Morristown, NJ.
1981
-Sidewalk Santa. Volunteers of America. NYC.
1980
-Tug Boat. A life on the water in New York Harbor.
1979
-St. Gennaro Festival. Little Italy, NYC.
1978
-Solo Exhibit: Rush Hour. Photographs on the NY/NJ PATH trains. March 1979 at The Photographers Guild, Kearny, NJ.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2000 -
Staff Photographer: Montclair State University.
Responsible for providing photography for all campus wide publications, advertising, public relations and Web use. Examples of my work can be seen here: http://www.mikepeters-photography.com/
1987 -
Freelance Photographer
Corporate, editorial and advertising photography for various clients
1985 - 87
Staff Photographer: The New Jersey Herald, Newton, NJ.
1983 - 85
Staff Photographer: The Somerset Messenger-Gazette, Somerville, NJ.
1979 - 83
Freelance Photographer and Photographers Assistant.
1979
Staff Photographer: Tiffany & Co., NYC.
EDUCATION
1977 - 79
Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC. AAS, Photography.