By Astrid Young ~
Peter Pickering is a well-known and respected portrait photographer now sharing his time equally between his homes in Western Australia and Northeast Thailand.
His first foray into photography was as the official school photographer for his high school in South Arabia at age twelve, and from there, he never looked back.
After opening his first studio, Studio 5, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, in 1969, he relocated to Australia in 1972. Citing an undeniable force that compels him to do what he does, he finds that even those rare occasions when he doesn’t have a camera in his hands, he is always composing and capturing moments in his minds eye: moments that can happen in the blink of an eye, fleeting moments to be captured for posterity.
Heavily influenced by iconic portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh, street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and glamour photographer Paul Barry, Peter Pickering’s focus (pun intended) has been on portrait photography.
Peter Pickering is a founding member and former president of Rockingham Photography Club, West Australia’s largest camera club, was formerly Vice President of the West Australian Photographic Federation (WAPF), and once employed twelve photographic teams operating throughout WA and Tasmania whilst managing a large photo studio specialising in glamour and model portfolios.
His initial experience goes back 50 years with large format 5x4 cameras, logging thousands of darkroom hours, processing and printing. These days, of course, the medium is digital, and his post-production expertise focuses on computer editing and manipulation, an enterprise that he finds both creative and rewarding.
Still actively teaching, Peter Pickering seeks to spark the same kind of passion and commitment in his students that has given him a lifetime of creative inspiration.
With a large collection of vintage medium-format cameras, Peter Pickering is recognised as an expert on Yashica and Mamiya medium-format TLR cameras, and spends his spare time chasing a passionate niche: shooting black and white in urban and street settings. After fifty years of photography, one would think he’d learned it all, but as a perfectionist he realises he still has much to learn. Peter is always driven to do better, each new day a potential learning experience.
