Peter Fraser is a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 fine art photographer

Fine art photography

Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...

. He was shortlisted for the Citigroup Photography Prize (now known as the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is a prize that annually rewards a photographer who has made the most significant contribution to the photographic medium in Europe, during the past year....

) in 2004.

Early life

Fraser bought his first camera at the age of 7. In 1968, at school, Fraser saw Powers of Ten

Powers of Ten

Powers of Ten is a 1968 American documentary short film written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames. The film depicts the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten . The film is an adaptation of the book Cosmic View by Dutch educator Kees Boeke, and more recently is the basis of a new...

 a film by Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr and Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Eames were American designers, who worked in and made major contributions to modern architecture and furniture. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art and film.-Charles Eames:Charles Eames, Jr was born in...

 which over nine minutes takes the viewer on a journey from a couple picnicking in Chicago, out to the imagined edge of the Universe and back, continuing on down through the skin to an atomic level. Fraser went to school in Wales until 1971, then studied Civil Engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 for three months at Hatfield Polytechnic

University of Hertfordshire

The University of Hertfordshire is a new university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, from which the university takes its name. It has more than 27,500 students, over 2500 staff, with a turnover of over £181m...

, England, before deciding to study photography. He studied Photography at Manchester Polytechnic

Manchester Metropolitan University

Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...

 between 1972 and 1976, repeating his final year due to becoming seriously ill after crossing the Sahara Desert in early 1975.

Photography

Fraser has said that 'The idea that there is no hierarchical relationship between large and small, as everything in the Universe is made of small things, has influenced much of his work and came directly from seeing this film'. Fraser was an early adopter of colour photography in the UK, along with Paul Graham and Martin Parr. He began exhibiting colour photographs in 1982. In 1984, Fraser travelled to Memphis, USA to spend two months with William Eggleston, after meeting him at Eggleston's first UK exhibition opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in the previous year. This experience gave Fraser the confidence to commit to working with colour photography with reference to notions of 'Poetic Truth' rather than notions of 'documentary truth' which prevailed at the time. Therefore despite the understandable historical pressure of the documentary tradition in British photography at this time Fraser was drawn to making photographs which were in each successive series preoccupied with philosophic and metaphysical questions, alluded to by Ian Jeffery who said,

"...see Peter Fraser, probably the best colourist anywhere now, and as capable with metaphors as any major poet. Fraser’s work is complete, full, in its resonances and layered meanings, rich with the sort of richness you might find in Chardin or Vermeer."

1983 - 1990

Between 1983 and 1986, Fraser made the exhibitions, ‘Twelve Day Journey’, ‘The Valleys Project’, ‘Everyday Icons’ and ‘Towards an Absolute Zero’ which led to his first publication ‘Two Blue Buckets’ in 1988. This book won the prestigious ‘Bill Brandt Award’ hosted by The Photographers’ Gallery in 1989 and led to an international audience for Fraser’s work. In 1990 Fraser was invited to be the British Artist in Residence in Marseilles, France, which led to the subsequent exhibition and publication ‘Ice and Water’ in which, through the shimmering heat of the Mediterranean summer his subject had become the space between and around objects.

1990s

Having been a chess enthusiast as a boy, and having been deeply impressed by Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ when released, he travelled to many countries in the world in the early 1990s to scientific research establishments photographing machines at the cutting edge of technology, proposing a series of ‘Portraits’ of machines shown and published as ‘Deep Blue’. This idea had been encouraged by IBM designers of the chess computer ‘Deep Blue’ speaking on their website of sensing the first signs of consciousness in the computer that finally beat Garry Kasparov, the World Chess champion in 1997. While visiting nearly 60 scientific sites around the world, Fraser frequently photographed in scientific ‘Clean Rooms’ where particles of dust above a certain size were not admitted. Subsequently pondering these small particles with ‘Powers Of Ten’ in mind, Fraser decided to start photographing ‘dirt and other low status’ material. Simultaneous to this work was a University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, commission to make new Art in their Applied Physics Department, where very high status research was being undertaken into the fundamental nature of matter at an subatomic level. This led to these two series being combined into a single new series of photographs, ‘Material’ in which a democratic notion of all material was proposed. This work was published in 2002.

2000s

In 2002 The Photographers’ Gallery, London, showed a 20 year overview of Fraser’s work, drawing on photographs from a number of his different series making a distinction between very large scale ‘Images’ which became part of the architecture of the gallery space and framed ‘Works’ hung from the walls. In 2004 Fraser was shortlisted (with Robert Adams, David Goldblatt and Joel Sternfeld) for the Citigroup (formally Citibank) International Photography Prize at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, for work which had been exhibited the previous year in the first Brighton Biennial. These photographs were the outcome of a synthesis between two preoccupations, namely his continuing conviction that small things are important, and that the surface of the earth more than ever looks the way it does because the human brain directs the hand to change the shape and nature of materials. This work was subsequently published by Nazraeli Press, USA in 2006. In his text for this book Gerry Badger wrote

"It may seem a long way-and some might feel the connections a mite far fetched-from the simple depiction of objects contained in Peter Fraser’s series, to the universe. But this, nevertheless is what Fraser is asking us to think about as we puzzle over these straightforward yet enigmatic images. In each photograph, he brings a forensic attention upon these everyday objects, yet however elegant each image is in itself, it is the linkages-both causal and casual-we might find between each one, jointly and severally, that we are asked to contemplate. In these relations, Peter Fraser is finding a poetic equivalent not just of the unity of opposites, but also to the simple, obvious yet profound idea expressed by Charles Eames: ‘Eventually, everything connects."

In early 2006 Fraser was invited to be an Artist in Residence at Oxford University, England, to make new Art with photography for the Biochemistry Department. The department had commissioned the demolition of several older buildings in which it was housed, to make way for a newly commissioned landmark building, Fraser visited Oxford twice a month for two and a half years making photographs at first in the midst of the demolition process using lower saturation colour film, and then changing to brighter colour film once the construction phase began. He wrote about his thoughts about this work here.

In 2009 Fraser was commissioned by Ffotogallery, Wales, to make new work across the entire country during that year. This resulted in the exhibition and publication ‘Lost For Words’, the first time Fraser had worked entirely digitally. These works were shown and published in spring 2010, of which Mark Durden in his accompanying essay observed that

"There is a dark strain running through many of Frasers new pictures. The sensuousness, beauty and idealism in his photography of objects is countered by a sense of the impermanence, incomprehensibility and meaninglessness of things. Objects exist not so much for us but against us, obdurate, enigmatic and other."

Solo exhibitions

2010: Lost for Words, Ffotogallery, Cardiff: Wales.2003: The Inconsiderable Things, 'Brighton Photo Biennial, University of Brighton Gallery, England. 2002: Peter Fraser, The Photographers’ Gallery, London. 1999: Peter Fraser, Gallerie 213, Paris, France. 1997-1998: Deep Blue, Viewpoint Gallery, Salford; Ffotogallery, Cardiff; Cambridge Darkroom, Tullie House, Carlisle. 1996: Deep Blue, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. 1995: Ice and Water, St Louis Museum of Art, Missouri, USA. Ice and Water, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham, England. 1993: Ice and Water, Cornerhouse, Manchester, England. 1989: Triptychs, Interim Art, London, England. 1988: Towards an Absolute Zero, Watershed, Bristol, England; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, England; Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales. 1987: Spectrum Galerie, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany. 1986: Everyday Icons, Photographers Gallery, London; Photo Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki; toured the United Kingdom. 1985: 12 Day Journey, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, England; Axiom, Cheltenham, England. 1984: New Colour, Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham, England; Arnolfini, Bristol, England. 1983: New Colour, The Photographer’s Corridor,University of Wales,Cardiff. 1982: The Flower Bridge, Impressions Gallery, York, England.

Fraser is represented by Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery, London.

Literature

2011 'Focus', Colour Theory, SuperMassiveBlackHole, issue 7/2011, online magazine http://www.supermassiveblackholemag.com

2010 Jeffery Ladd, 5B4 Blogspot, June 25, 2010, 'Lost for Words by Peter Fraser' http://5b4.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

2010 Alex Coles, 'Architecture with Art in Mind', Salt Bridges, Prestel Publishing Ltd, pp 120 (text), and pp 88–113 (images).

2009 2009….‘At The Ruskin’, Oxford Poetry magazine, Magdalen College, Oxford University, Spring 2009, Vol.X111no1, pp 31>32 text, and 4 page colour insert.

2009 Jay Merick, Independent Newspaper, London, 9 March 2009, ‘How does architecture affect academic study?’, Higher Education News

Peter Fraser, ‘Oxford University Residency’, Photoworks Magazine, Brighton, UK, Spring/Summer 2009, pp 28–37

2008 ‘Máquinas’ (Machines), EXIT Magazine, Madrid, Issue 31, cover and pp130–137

‘Troubled Waters’, 12 Still Lives from the Siemens Photography Collection, Walther König, Köln, Germany, cover and pp 76–79

‘No Such Thing as Society’, Photography in Britain 1967-1987, Professor David Mellor (author), Hayward Publishing, pp 127–131, 133-135, 146

2007 Gerry Badger, ‘The Genius of Photography, Quadrille Publishing, London. pp 212

David Chandler, ‘Peter Fraser’, Photoworks Magazine, Brighton, England. May/October 2007, p74

Aaron Rothman, ‘Peter Fraser’, Photo Eye Booklist, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Spring 2007, pp 20–22

Edgar Allen Beem, ‘Close Encounters With The Overlooked’, Photo District News, New York, July 2007, pp 82–86

2004 Charlotte Cotton, ‘The Photograph As Contemporary Art’, Thames and Hudson, pp 126–127

Heinz-Norbert Jooks, ‘Citigroup Photography Prize Exhibition’, Kunstforum 171, July/August 2004, pg 326

Michael Bracewell, ‘Peter Fraser photographs 2002-2003’, Portfolio Magazine, no 39, pp. 8 –13

Ian Jeffery, ‘Review Citigroup Prize’, Photoworks Magazine, Spring / Summer 2004, pp 54–57

Interview with Rachel Withers, ‘Peter Fraser Material’, FOAM Magazine, Issue 5 ‘Near’, pp. 99–117

Johanna Burton, ‘Tiny Jubilations’, Citigroup Photography Prize 2004, published by The Photographers’ Gallery, pp38–39

Oliver Bennett, ‘Out of the Ordinary’, Design Week, 8 January.

Adrian Searle, ‘Smashing Pumpkins’, The Guardian, 29 January.

Ben Lewis, ‘Photography Triumphant’, Prospect, February.

Sean O’Hagan, ‘Drive to the Edge’, The Observer, 1 February.

Sarah Kent, ‘Citigroup Photography Prize’, Time Out, 18 February.

2003 Johanna Burton, ‘A Few Dumb Ideas On Peter Fraser and Rachel Harrison’, Brighton Photo Biennial 2003 Publication (with Photoworks), pp. 10– 13.

2002 Gerry Badger, ‘Peter Fraser Material’, Next Level, Edition 02, Vol 01, pp. 42–29.

Paul Tebbs, ‘Technological Confectionary’, Source, Issue 32, Autumn 2002, pp. 52–53.

Geraldine Haigh, ‘Chromatically Correct’, Professional Photographer, August 2002, pp. 45–48.

1999 Sleazenation, January 1999, pp. 48–57.

1998 David Mellor, ‘British Photography: Towards A Bigger Picture’, Aperture Magazine, New York, pp, 57-61

1995 Robert Duffy, ‘Fraser’s Different Focus’, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 20 August.

1994 Ian Jeffrey, ‘Peter Fraser’, Untitled Magazine, Spring; p. 17.

1993 Mark Durden, ‘Ice and Water’, Creative Camera, Dec; p. 42.

1989 David Mellor, ‘Coincidenta Oppositorum’, Exhibition sheet, Interim Art, London.......

Sue Hubbard, ‘Peter Fraser – Triptychs’, Time Out, 26 July.

Mary-Rose Beaumont, ‘Peter Fraser’, Arts Review, 28 July; p. 42.

1988 Ian Jeffery, ‘British Photography Flourishes’, Camera Austria, pp. 58–61.

Ian Jeffrey, ‘Unrepentant Roses’, Creative Camera, December; p. 34.

David Mellor, ‘Romances of Decay’, Aperture, New York, Autumn, p 34

1987 Ian Jeffery, ‘Inscriptions and Inventions’, British Council Catalogue; pp. 14 –15

1986 William Bishop, ‘Photographs by Peter Fraser’, Creative Camera, May; pp. 18–25.

Susan Beardmore, ‘I hate Green’, Valleys Catalogue, Ffotogallery, Cardiff.

Collections

• Arts Council of England, London
• The Arthur Andersen Art Collection, London
• The British Council, London
• Contemporary Art Society, London
• Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt, Germany
• HTV, Bristol England,
• Manchester City Art Gallery, England
• Morgan Stanley, London North West Arts Association, England
• Oldham Art Gallery, England
• St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
• Siemens Collection, Munich, Germany
• Sun Life Collection, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, England
• The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
• Washington University Art Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, USA