Pete Turner American, 1934-2017

A pioneer of color photography, Pete Turner (1934 - 2017) began his career during its infancy, transitioning the style from purely commercial to artistic spheres. With an uncanny perception of compositional color and avid interest in geometry, Turner combined technique and saturation manipulation to craft surreal, unique images. Treating color as a graphic element, Turner’s Giraffe caused a sensation when exhibited in 1967 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Born in Albany, New York, Turner graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1956 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He went on to serve in the United States military for a year, where he learned to manipulate dyes to create quality color prints while working at the Army Pictorial Center in Long Island City, New York. Relocating to New York City in 1958, Turner quickly established himself as a dominant force in commercial and editorial photography, his hyper-saturated aesthetic gracing the pages of major publications such as National Geographic and Esquire. His pioneering use of color and geometric composition also left an indelible mark on jazz album art, as he worked closely with producer Creed Taylor and his work was used by iconic labels such as CTI, Verve, and Impulse!.

Turner’s contributions earned him the Outstanding Achievement in Photography award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers in 1981, and in 2000 he was voted by Photo District News as one of the 20 most influential photographers. In 1986, Turner published his debut monograph, Pete Turner Photographs, with two others following: Pete Turner African Journey and The Color of Jazz. His photographs are in the permanent collections of many major museums, including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, and the International Center of Photography in New York. The George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY serves as the primary depository of his life’s work and houses a major collection of his photographs. Turner died in 2017, leaving behind a body of work that pushed the medium of photography in newfound and influential ways.