• › BIOGRAPHY
• › STATEMENT
• › EXHIBITIONS & PUBLICATIONS
• › SELECTED QUOTES
• › INTERVIEW

Peter Angelo Simon was born in rural Pennsylvania. His earliest memories are of images revealed at night on his bedroom ceiling by the sweeping lights of passing cars. At an early age his Aunt Doris introduced him to magic. Simon began photographing in earnest while working as a reporter and writer for newspapers in Vermont and California. It was while writing a public affairs television documentary series in Philadelphia that he took a workshop with the photographer Harold Feinstein.

On a documentary writing assignment he traveled in South America for a year and a half, photographing as he went. Upon his return to New York Peter realized that photography had become central to his life.

A project photographing the life of a New York family led to a collaboration with sculptor Linda Brenner. The result was a portrait which projected scores of black and white photographs onto a sculptural group representing the family's father. The piece has been recognized as unique in the history of photography. It propelled Peter into an intense period of photographic experimentation which led in turn to special effects photo-illustration assignments for editorial and advertising use. At the same time he worked on realistic assignments for magazines and produced documentary studies of families. An early Assignment for The New York Times Magazine was a cover illustrating left brain/right brain research. It was chosen as among the best in the magazine's history.

Peter's realistic and special effects photographs have illustrated many stories in Smithsonian Magazine. His intimate photographs of Muhammad Ali at his Pennsylvania training camp have been published worldwide, most recently in Taschen's publication GOAT (Greatest of All Time).

He has photographed the working process of artists, among them theater director Robert Wilson, painter George Deem, the creators of New York's Big Apple Circus and Sebastian Brecht. He conceived and was co-producer of the D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus documentary film Bessie: A Portrait of Bessie Schonberg, on the legendary teacher and mentor.

Peter is an imaginative photographer with a passion for visual communication. For thirty years he has created striking images which have been used in visual communications of all kinds worldwide. His work has been exhibited in museums and fine art galleries. His powerful visual style is characterized by an interest in luminosity and the human spirit. As a teacher he is able to help people develop their personal vision through photography. He devotes his time to personal photography projects and teaching. He lives in New York City with his wife the theatrical lighting designer Beverly Emmons.

Artist Statement

I see the camera's viewfinder as a proscenium: here is where my inner life intersects with the outside world. My photographs are reports of these momentary encounters.

When I was a child I performed magic. I was fascinated that you could create an illusion and people were astonished. I began to understand in a very deep way not only that the spirit of magic lives in everybody but it can be summoned with visual images. The impulses that drew me to perform are the same that draw me to photography. If you ask me when it started, I think these are the roots of it.

I am attracted to images which suggest transitional states, the sense of embarking upon a story or inner journey; threshold experiences. Especially appealing to me are visual situations which give rise to feelings associated with archetypes and stories. I respond powerfully to people involved in creating something new: artists — anybody — at work. I like to observe the emergining of subterranean processes, what I think of as the “Theater of Creativity.”

Exhibitions & Publications

Education

Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, 1954-1956.

Photography with Harold Feinstein, 1964, 1971.

Advanced Color Photography with Jay Maisel, 1988.

Oral History with Prof. Ronald J. Grele, Columbia University, 1994.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2006: Beyond Gravity. Walter Reade Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery, Lincoln Center Film Society, New York City

2006: Selected Works. Chilmark Library, Chilmark, Massachusetts.

2006: Floatographs! Waterfront Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

2002: Muhammad Ali, 1974. The Field Gallery, West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

2002: Encounter: Mozambique, 2001. The Field Gallery, West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

2001: Old Copper Series. The Field Gallery, West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

2000: Thirty-four Photographs: Selected Work 1968-1999. The Savanna Gallery, Edgartown, Massachusetts.

1999: Vineyard Luminosity. The Field Gallery, West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

1998: Time and Moschen Studies. Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, Massachusetts.

1998: Robert Wilson: At Work. Fourth Street Photo Gallery, New York, New York.

1978: Big Apple Circus. International Center of Photography, New York, New York.

1977: The Juggler's Dream. The Westchester Gallery, Westchester, New York.

Collaborative Exhibition

2001: George Deem and Peter Angelo Simon: Paintings and Photographs in Conversation. Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana.

Selected Group Shows

2005: Circus Dreams. Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, Connecticut.

2003: Double Exposure. Soho Photo Gallery, New York, New York.

2002: Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs. 116 Prince Street, New York, New York. 9/11 Exhibition and Archive.

2003: Here and Now. Silicon Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.

1990: Spiral Dreams. Mountainview Gallery, Woodstock, New York. Collaborative show with Laura Donnely Dance Group.

1985: Experimental Color Photography. Kodak Professional Photography Exhibition, EPCOT Center, Florida.

1979: Experimental Color. Greenglass Multi-media Gallery, New York, New York.

1978: APA International Exhibition of Photography. Traveling exhibition, Japan and Europe.

1973: Light and Lens. The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York.

1972: Nude in Black and White. The Neikrug Gallery, New York, New York.

Recent Bibliography

GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali. Seventy-five pound, 20" x 20" Monument on paper. Photographs and text. Taschen, Koln, Spring, 2004.

Felix Dennis, Muhammad Ali: The Glory Years. Photographs. Eubury Press, London, 2002; Mirimax, New York, 2003.

Ken Lassiter, Sailing on the Line Between Art and Photography. Interview and photographs. Photographer's Forum, Serbin Communications, Santa Barbara, California, February 2003.

Selected Bibliography

Constance Bond. An Artist's New Take on the Old Schools: George Deem in a Class by Himself. Portrait photograph. Smithsonian Magazine, Washington DC, July 1993.

Claire Dunne. Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul. Photographs. Parabola Books, New York, 2001.

Evansville Museum of Arts And Science. Exhibition catalog. George Deem and Peter Angelo Simon: Paintings and Photographs in Conversation. Photographs. Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana, 2001.

Fred Hapgood. The Good News About Viruses. Photographs. Smithsonian Magazine. Washington, DC, November 1987.

Thomas Hauser. Muhammad Ali in Perspective. Photographs. Collins Publishers, San Francisco. Harper Collins, 1994.

The Hudson River Museum. Exhibition catalog. Light and Lens. Photographs. The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, 1973.

Maya Pines. Right Brain/Left Brain: Two Astonishingly Different Personalities. Cover Photograph. The New York Times Magazine. The New York Times, September 9, 1973.

Wilfred Sheed. Muhammad Ali. Photographs. An Alskog Book. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975.

Laura Simms. Crossing into the Invisible. Photographs. Parabola Magazine, Threshold issue. The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, New York, 2000.

Peter Angelo Simon. Big Apple Circus. Text and Photographs. Penguin Books, New York, 1978.

Peter Angelo Simon. Equestrian Dreams. Photographs. Martha's Vineyard Magazine. Edgartown, Massachusetts, July 2000.

Nancy Stevens. Peter Angelo Simon's Family Albums. Photographs. Popular Photography, 33mm Photography. New York, Winter 1977.

Andrew Wylie. Ali: the Greatest Champ. Photographs. Free press, New York, 1974.

Film

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. Bessie: A Portrait of Bessie Schonberg. A documentary film. Peter Angelo Simon, co-producer. Pennebaker Hegedus Films, New York, 1998.

Commission

Peter Angelo Simon and Linda Brenner. Portrait of Amos. Eighty documentary photographs projected onto sculptural group. Anonymous private collector, 1972.

Grant

Richard Florsheim Art Fund. In support of photography for Evansville Museum exhibition, 2001.

Selected Collections

Artservice, Paris

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana

Byrd Hoffman Foundation, New York, New York

Albert and Susan Gillotti, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts

Andy Goldman and Susan Heilbron, Chilmark, Massachusetts

Marcy Gringlas and Joel Greenberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center, Watermill, New York

Interview

Peter Angelo Simon: Sailing on the Line Between Art and Photography.
From Photographer's Forum, Spring 2003.
By Ken Lassiter © 2003

"We met in Peter Angelo Simon's studio on a warm fall afternoon with sounds of the city floating in the open windows. It was just about a month after September 11, 2001, and it was like no other time. The emptiness where the World Trade Center's twin towers once dominated the neighborhood skyline was unsettling. In elevators New Yorkers chatted pleasantly like old friends. People on the streets were extra thoughtful and courteous. They were also jumpy. In the middle of the interview, a sound like a shot suddenly came in through the open window and Simon ducked instinctively, his face frozen in terror. it was a backfire when someone started a motorcycle at the bar on the corner. The city and the people had changed forever.

At an early age, Simon became entranced with magic and was an accomplished magician by age 12. He still makes magic, but now he does it with his camera and his computer. His clients include many of the top companies — IBM, General Motors, Bell Labs, Matsushita, Smithsonian magazine and New York Times Magazine. Simon photographs whatever interests him, and he resists categorization. He has several exhibitions each year in SoHo galleries and often out of town.

Simon settled on the sofa while I set up the tape recorder. Stacks of framed prints leaned against the wall behind me. His office area was cluttered with notes, prints, a computer station, a radio for company and a fan for comfort. [ Click here to read the complete interview ... ]