Introduction
Within the revolution of techniques in photography in the 1970s such as the revival in historical processes, lithography and abstract imagery, Laurie Peek was making work that was diverse from traditional photography in a different way. Her photographs seemed to comment on the contradictions and injustices within society. Peek’s work appeared to be rebelling against the photograph as a beautiful object and instead using it as a communication tool to expose oppression and untruths. Her images work together to seek out the appearance of inconsistencies within society.
Peek’s work alludes to the need for social or political change in society. She uses it to show evidence of racism, exploitation, and what could be considered greed. Mounted as diptychs, her images work together to contradict different ideas or attitudes. Although her work may be thought of as social documentary, her compositions are cropped in such a way to make the distinct locations or people ambiguous, creating a universal theme within all of her work.
The selected images are a very small sample of the variation in her portfolio. Her work touches on several more concepts, however I believe these have an importance in the community where the Visual Studies Workshop is located. The ones I chose deal with the same issues our city of Rochester deals with on a day-to-day basis, which is not often explored by other artists or photographers that live and work here.
It was exciting to see work that dealt with the same issues that our community in Rochester, NY and other urban areas deal with, made at the Visual Studies Workshop. When most of the students were expanding technical issues in photography, Laurie Peek seemed to expand social issues and concerns within society and explored interesting ways to communicate them conceptually.
About Laurie Peek
Laurie Peek, Photograph by Roger Bruce
Laurie Peek was a student at the Visual Studies Workshop in the late 1970s. While attending school Peek spent time working in the research library at the George Eastman House. Looking at her thesis portfolio it is only natural Peek would turn towards photojournalism as a career in photography. Much of her work after the Visual Studies Workshop concentrated on documenting activists, protests and demonstrations. Peek became a freelance photographer and photojournalist for several city papers and took photographs of various icons such as Daniel Berrigan and I. F. Stone for New York City’s Department of General Services. Currently Peek is working as a businesswoman in New York City and has recently taken up photography once again. SM
For more information on this artist, including VSW's holdings, please click here.
About the Exhibition
Movement: Selections from the First Decade of the Visual Studies Workshop is an online exhibition showcasing an assortment of over 100 pieces from working artists affiliated with the Visual Studies Workshop in the 1970s. These selected artists demonstrate the early years of a revolutionary new institution. [Read More]
