Quote Photographing news is all about being in the right place.
Peter Marlow joined Magnum Photos in 1981 and became a full Member in 1986.


Peter Marlow
British, b. 1952

Although gifted in the language of photojournalism, Peter Marlow is not a photojournalist. He was initially, however, one of the most enterprising and successful young British news photographers, and in 1976 joined the Sygma agency in Paris. He soon found that he lacked the necessary appetite for the job while on assignment in Lebanon and Northern Ireland during the late 1970s; he discovered that the stereotype of the concerned photojournalist disguised the disheartening reality of dog-eat-dog competition between photographers hunting fame at all costs.

Since those days, Marlow's aesthetic has shifted - in that he makes mainly color photographs - but his approach is unchanged. The color of incidental things became central to his pictures in the same way that the shape and mark of things had been central to his black-and-white work.

Marlow has come full circle. He started his career as an international photojournalist, returned to Britain to examine his own experience, and discovered a new visual poetry that enabled him to understand his homeland. Having found this poetry, he has taken it back on the road: he now photographs as much in Japan, the USA and elsewhere in Europe as he does in the UK.

Education

1974 BSC Hons. Degree in Psychology, Manchester University, UK

Awards

1999 III Premio de Creacion Fotografica Luis Ksado
1988 The Photographers' Gallery
1986 National Headline Award
1982 Arts Council of Great Britain

Exhibitions

2001 Nantes - ABN AMRO Gallery Nantes, France
2000 Britain - Saison Photographique Cherbourg Octeville, France
1999 Ancient Kumano Roads Japan and the Road to Santiago de Compostela Spain -
Galleries in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Wakayama, Japan
1998 Non Places - Keynes Gallery, Canterbury, UK
1994 Looking Out to Sea - Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK
1993 Brighton Besides the Seaside - University Gallery, Brighton, UK
1993 Looking Out to Sea - Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
1993 Looking Out to Sea - The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
1989 Liverpool - Il Diaframma, Milan, Italy
1987 Peter Marlow's London Night Photos - Lausanne, Switzerland
1983 London by Night - The Photographers' Gallery,London
1979 The Ultra Right in Europe - The Canon Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Collections
Museum of London, UK
Imperial War Museum, London, UK
Louisiana Museum, Denmark
The Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK
Institute Valenciano Arte Moderne, Valencia, Spain
The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
Archive of the Birmingham City Library, Birmingham, UK

Books

2006 Concorde - The Last Summer (Concorde - le dernier été), Thames & Hudson, UK,
France
2001 The Shape of a Pocket (with John Berger), Bloomsbury, UK
2000 March 30 to August 05, a limited edition on the conversion of Gainsborough Studios
for the Almeida Theatre, UK
1999 Ancient Kumano Roads and Roads to Santiago, A+A Publishing, Japan
1992 Department Somme, Trois Cailloux, France
1998 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Arte, Italy
1995 Underground, Cahiers De Cinema, France
1993 Liverpool - looking out to sea, Jonathan Cape/Random House, UK
1992 Europe on the dark side of the stars, Secours Populaire Francais, France

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

Radio
1993 Liverpool looking out to sea (15', BBC Radio Two, UK)
1993 Kaleidoscope (12', BBC Radio Four, UK)