Press Release: Photographs by Peter B. Moore: A Retrospective

| July 21 - August 19, 2015

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 1, 4 – 7 p.m.

The Quogue Gallery is pleased to present “Photographs by Peter Moore: A Retrospective,” an exhibit that showcases the myriad styles, subjects and techniques that Moore employs in his extraordinary photography. From his stunning black and white landscapes, to his “A Moment at the Guggenheim,” collection to his newest foray into abstract images, Moore demonstrates an uncanny ability to see something where the casual observer sees nothing or to create the exceptional from the otherwise banal.

When commissioned to take a picture of a building on Sutton place in Manhattan, Moore recounts his response, “I was asked to take a picture of a building, but what can you do with a building?” Instead he turned his eye on the magnificent cityscape seen from the rooftop and the result was East River Traffic.    Moore’s keen sense of finding the hidden subject has been at the core of his work throughout his career.

In 2010 Moore fixed his lens on humanity, indulging his fascination with human psychology, interaction and relationships as revealed through body language and facial expression. The result was a collection of color photographs taken of people in all manner of repose against a low white wall in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. As an unobserved photographer, Moore captured chance encounters, intimate tête-à-têtes between old friends, after school chitchat, joy and solitude. The Guggenheim Museum published this arresting visual narrative in Moore’s first book, “A Moment at the Guggenheim.”

In his current work, Moore has completely abandoned the dark room and old-school techniques and plunged into the world of digital to create spectacular colorful abstract images.   These mesmerizing swirls of color and light effects break all new boundaries in photographic technique. Moore’s unabashed exploration and exploitation of everything digital photography can do is reminiscent of David Hockney’s acclaimed recent works created on an iPad that were the subject of “A Bigger Picture,” the blockbuster exhibit at London’s Royal Academy in 2012.

Moore’s immersion into the digital world is even more remarkable when one considers that his career in photography began in the 1930’s at the age of 10 with a simple box camera. He pointed this rudimentary device at the night sky and captured an image that won a contest offered by the Hayden Planetarium. As a reward, he received a letter announcing that the photograph would be hung on a wall at the planetarium. That letter of 1939 became his inspiration and launched a life-long romance with photography.

The rapidly evolving equipment and technology that have transformed photography have never intimidated Moore; rather they have intrigued him with the vast possibilities before him. He has moved from dark room to digital and says: “The camera is my paintbrush, moving constantly as I create and interpret the intensity of color, depth, surface and textures leading to a new level of creativity and excitement. The dark room has become light.”

Peter Moore studied and worked with the renowned photographers Ruth Bernhard and John Sexton. Throughout the decades as he has moved from a crude box camera, to a 35 mm Nikon, to a digital Nikon D3200 using an 18-200 mm zoom lens. Moore continues to refine his technique and vision at various workshops including the International Center of Photography in New York. Moore’s photography has been shown in New York, Maryland and Canada. His work is owned by individual collectors as well as corporations and charitable organizations. He and his wife divide their time between Manhattan and Quogue.

About Quogue Gallery:

 The Quogue Gallery was established in 2014 by Chester and Christy Murray, long time art collectors and residents of Quogue. The gallery features contemporary emerging and established artists whose work includes paintings and prints, photography, glass, and sculpture. The gallery’s main focus is on displaying the work of East End artists who capture a mood, a color, or the extraordinary light that define the East End. The artists do not necessarily represent the specific realities of the area, but rather have each uniquely been influenced or inspired by their surroundings. The gallery also exhibits modern and contemporary artists whose work fits within the gallery’s aesthetic.   Recent exhibitions have included: Emerson Woelffer: Works on Paper; Le Corbusier: Unité; Shifting Tides: Photographs by Janice Mehlman; and Barbara Vaughn: Waterscapes.

Contact:

Christy Murray

Christy@quoguegallery.com

Mobile: 203-981-8260

 

Quogue Gallery

44 Quogue Street, Quogue, New York, 11959

631-653-6236 t info@quoguegallery.com t www.quoguegallery.com