Peter David Lee has had an extensive and international photographic background from London to Singapore including a professional wedding, portraiture and commercial photographic studio in Sonora, California. He was given a Kodak box brownie camera when he was barely ten and still remembers using British “Gratispool” film with a rather strange paper negative. He has been photographing a variety of subjects ever since, but with more modern camera equipment that ranges from an Arca Swiss 4 x 5, comprehensive medium format and 35 mm film outfits as well as several digital cameras.
It was with a very early digital camera that Peter won a coveted Distinction in print photography at the 2004 Welsh Photographic Federation Salon in 2004. “I thought I would be controversial and enter a panel of twelve prints entitled: The Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. I felt that would be a novelty in Wales.” Peter was awarded an Associate of the Welsh Photographic Federation (AWPF) Distinction, 2004, for the Panel and is finalizing his Ph.D. with the University of Wales.
While in England Peter was an active member of the Sevenoaks Camera Club and spent many hours with other members of the club in landscape photography particularly in the Lake District and Snowdonia National Park. His images have appeared in Shutterbug and numerous photo exhibitions winning international acclaim.
Peter teaches in the Humanities and Philosophy Department at Columbia College. Courses include Old World Culture, Modern Culture, World Religions and Philosophy. “Art forms a major part of the Culture classes ranging from that of Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the Renaissance Period to Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. In all art, the subject becomes the point of departure and the artist applies his own interpretation as he internalizes the subject and produces his personal art form” comments Professor Lee. “This is vitally important in landscape photography and more so in photographing flowers. A number of years ago I visited Yosemite National Park several times, photographing the dogwoods. On the fourth consecutive visit I found a photographer by my favorite dogwood tree and the particular bloom I had been trying to photograph had doubled in size overnight! Needless to say, the gentleman had broken the cardinal rule in photographing flowers and had broken off one bloom from a tree and had taped it to my favorite bloom. All my wildflowers are taken in the wild and are never picked, but are left for the enjoyment of others, hence immense skill and creativity are required to produce the perfect image,” said Professor Lee.
“A new professor from England . . . Peter Lee of England, who teaches comparative religion at the college, gives us two studio portraits and a stunning black-and-white study of Yosemite’s Half Dome, one of the best composed photographs in this writer’s experience. Cool and moody when viewed closely, one must stand some 30 feet away to fully appreciate the photo’s abstract qualities.” Jim Leitzell, Columbia College Faculty and Staff Art Exhibition, News Release No. 054-05: September 21, 2005.
“A clear standout in a field of exemplary work is Peter D. Lee’s suite of twelve small color photographs with the collective title “Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.” This set recently won the Distinction Award from the Welsh Photographic Federation. Each flower glows jewel-like before a richly saturated, dark, purplish background. Together, these photographs are more than just a botanical catalogue, and many of them were taken right on the college campus!” Jim Leitzell, Columbia College Faculty and Staff Art Exhibition, News Release No. 060-06: September 21, 2006.
Photo Gallery of
Peter Lee
