LAURIE PEEK
With experience in the visual arts as an archivist, educator, documentarian and fine artist, for over a decade Laurie Peek has been focused on creating and sharing her art full-time. Recovering from a personal tragedy, she has most recently been using her photography to explore the meaning of love and loss, grief and healing.
Peek grew up on the Gulf coast of Florida, where she spent most of her childhood playing outside in the lush Florida landscape and in its waters, giving her a long-time fascination with flora and water. Attending high school in Charleston, SC, she soaked up the unique atmosphere and culture of that historic city.
A photography residency at Apeiron Workshop in Millerton, NY was her first extensive encounter with some of the masters of photography like Emmet Gowin, Paul Caponigro and Danny Lyon. It cemented her decision to continue her education in photography. She obtained her Masters of Fine Arts in Photography in 1978 at the Visual Studies Workshop / SUNY Buffalo studying with Nathan Lyons, Syl Labrot, Todd Walker, and Hollis Frampton. Working part-time at the George Eastman House Museum of Photography, she immersed herself in the GEH photo archives and exhibitions. After teaching photography for two years in D.C., she moved to NYC and became a photo librarian for The Bettmann Archive (now part of Getty Images) and then Sygma Photo News.
Having a first-hand look at news coverage while working at Sygma and wanting to use her photography skills “to make a difference,” Peek became a journalist, photojournalist and PR photographer. Capturing the labor-union handshake that ended the 1980 transit strike was her first big break when the Soho Photo News reporter asked to use her photo for the cover. She went on to
