Peter Brown
Peter Brown lives in Houston with his wife Jill Fryar and their daughter Caitlin. He attended Stanford University (BA English, MFA Photography) and has taught in the art departments at Rice and at Stanford. He how teaches at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice. He has exhibited and published his work widely.
His photographic awards include the Dorothea Lange – Paul Taylor Prize (with Kent Haruf) from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; an Alfred Eisenstaedt Award from Columbia University and LIFE magazine for a photo-essay published in DoubleTake; an Imogen Cunningham Award for his portfolio Seasons of Light; a graduate fellowship from the Carnegie Foundation; an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; an Artist’s Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and a publication grant from the Graham Foundation. He was named Photographer/Educator of the Year by the Houston Center for Photography in 2004 and was awarded the first Rice University Glasscock School Teaching Prize in 2007. His book On the Plains received the Fred Whitehead Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. In recognition of his work in the Houston community, Mayor Bill White proclaimed November 3rd, 2007 “Peter Brown Day”.
His collaborative book on the High Plains with Kent Haruf, West of Last Chance, was published by W.W. Norton in January of 2008 and has been excerpted in Harpers, 5280, PhotoIcon and PDN.
He presently is photographing the Llano Estacado of Texas and New Mexico under a grant from the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University.
His photographs are in many public, private, university and corporate collections, including those of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Menil Collection in Houston, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Stanford University Museum of Art, the Rice University Collection, The Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas Austin, the Sheldon Museum at the University of Nebraska, the Spencer Museum at the University of Kansas, the Snipe Museum at Notre Dame, and the University of Kentucky Museum of Art, among many others. His work has been exhibited in one man and group shows in museums and galleries in this country and abroad. Among others: The Museum of Modern Art in New York; The Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
His first book Seasons of Light, consisted of photographs of interior scenes with Brown’s short prose pieces, and was published with an afterword and poetry by Denise Levertov by Rice University Press in 1988. It was excerpted in American Photographer. His second, On The Plains, dealt with the open landscape and small towns of the western plains. Published with an introduction by Kathleen Norris by W.W. Norton, photographs from On the Plains were also published in DoubleTake, LIFE, The New Yorker, Aperture and Texas Monthly. Brown’s work has appeared in Dwell, House and Garden, Photo District News (PDN), Landscape Architecture, Duke, Stanford, Popular Photography, PhotoIcon, American Photographer, FotoMetro, Southwest Art, American Cowboy and other magazines - and on the covers of books by Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, Kent Haruf, Denise Levertov and Susan Wood.
In Houston, he is on the Advisory Board of The Houston Center for Photography, and the Art Board of Fotofest. He teaches at and is on the Board of the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice University.
Brown’s work may be seen at Sandy Carson Gallery in Denver, Harris Gallery in Houston, Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles, Stephen Clark Gallery in Austin, Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, PDNB Gallery in Dallas and Highland Gallery, in Marfa, Texas.
Education
M.F.A., Photography, Stanford University. 1977
B.A., English, Stanford University. 1971
Selected Exhibitions
2008
West of Last Chance, PDNB Gallery, Dallas.
West of Last Chance, Harris Gallery, Houston.
West of Last Chance, Stephen Clark Gallery, Austin.
West of Last Chance, Carson Gallery, Denver.
West of Last Chance, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
West of Last Chance, Highland Gallery, Marfa.
2006
High Plains, Harris Gallery, Houston.
Llano Estacado, Island in the Sky, Houston Center for Photography, Houston.
2005
Llano Estacado, Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas.
Texas Expanses, Travis Tower, Houston, Texas.
Xtreme Houses, Lothringer Dreizehn, Munich, & Halle 14, Leipzig , Germany.
2003
On The Plains, Dual Show in the Art and Architecture Galleries, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas*
Masterworks of American Photography, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth Texas
2002
Safe Haven: Picturing Domestic Space, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, California.
In The Orchard, Harris Gallery, Houston, FotoFest Exhibition, Spring 2002.*
On The Plains, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California, Spring 2002*
Open Spaces, Texas Places, Museum of Natural Science, Houston, Texas, Spring 2002.
20th Anniversary Exhibition, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas, Spring 2002.
In The Orchard, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, Texas*
Texas Weather, Stephen Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas
2000
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Crossing State Lines: Texas Art from the Museum of Fine Art’s Collection.
Transamerica Pyramid Gallery, San Francisco, California, Western Views.
Stephen Clark Gallery, Austin, Texas, On the Plains.*
Barbara Able Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Inaugural Exhibition.
Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, Canada, Laundry.
The Great Plains Collection, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Old and New
Favorites from the Permanent Collection.
Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, Texas, Photoview.
1999
Kilgore College, Kilgore, Texas, On the Plains.*
Duke University Art Gallery, Durham, North Carolina, The Anatomy of a Book
Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, On The Plains.*
Florida International University, Miami, Florida, Martin Margulies Collection.
The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, On The Plains.*
The Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas, On the Plains.*
Harris Gallery, Houston, On The Plains.*
1998
Diverse Works, Houston, Texas, Recipients.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Inside These Walls.
ArtScan Gallery, Houston, Texas, Altered Landscape.
1997
University of Texas at Arlington, Lone Star: Reconsidering the Texas Landscape.
1996
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Great Plains.*
Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, Oregon, Social Landscape.
1995
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon. Great Plains.*
1994
Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, California, Focus '94 .
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Recent Acquisitions.
Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, Texas. Light Fantastic.
Harris Gallery, Houston. Great Plains. *
1993
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Texas Focus.
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Close to Home. *
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas. Seeing the Forest Through the Trees.
1992
Burden Gallery, New York, New York. Our Town.
1991
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York. The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort.
Exhibition travels to The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art & the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center .
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. The Mundy Collection.
Mills College Photography Gallery, Oakland, California. Southern Plains.*
Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas. Relative Chaos: Family Life.
1990
Farish Gallery, Rice University, Houston, Texas. High Plains/ Plain Views.*
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Houston Photographers.
1989
Sewall Gallery, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Messages from the South.
The New York State Museum, Albany, New York. The Prehistoric in Contemporary Art.
The Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, Missouri. Current Works, 1989.
Eye Gallery, San Francisco, California. Landscape.
1988
The Museum of Fine Arts, Glassell School, Houston, One Plus One. Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Peter Brown, Geoff Winningham, George Krause.
Institute of Mexican Culture, San Antonio, Texas. Visiones de Tejanos/Visions of Texans. Exhibition travels through Mexico and Central America 1988-1990.
1987
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Heath.*
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, American Color.
Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, Texas, and subsequent travels. New American Talent.
1986
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Three From Houston.
Media Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Interiors. Exhibition travels to Everson Museum, Syracuse, N.Y.
The Abilene Museum of Fine Arts, Abilene, Texas, Ten Texas Photographers.
1985
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Peter Brown, Recent Work.*
The Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas. Seasons of Light.*
Santa Fe Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Southwest '85.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Houston Photographers From The Collection.
1984
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Peter Brown, George Krause, Geoff Winningham.
Canon Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland. Seasons of Light.*
Alphaville Gallery, Piacenza, Italy. Seasons of Light.*
Smith-Anderson Gallery, Palo Alto, California. Photography.
1983
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, California. Seasons of Light.*
Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas. Seasons of Light.*
The Waco Art Center, Waco, Texas. Seasons of Light.*
1982
The Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Michelangelo and the Bull.*
Stavenger Museum of Art, Stavenger, Norway, and subsequent travels. Kunst Fra Houston i Norge/Art from Houston to Norway.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California and subsequent travels. Contemporary Photography as Phantasy.
Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. Peter Brown.*
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Color from the Collection.
Mancini Gallery, Houston, Texas. New American Landscape.
DW Gallery, Dallas, Texas. Book/Art.
1981
Smith-Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, California. Peter Brown.*
1980
Stanford University Art Gallery, Stanford, California. Thanks to Leo.
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, California. Peter Brown.*
Mancini Gallery, Houston, Texas. Peter Brown.*
Laguna Gloria Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. Emerging Texas Photographers.
Carson-Sapiro Gallery, Denver, Colorado. New Color Photography.
1979
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. The Tony Cronin Memorial Exhibition.
1978
Smith-Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, California. Peter Brown.*
Media Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Peter Brown.*
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, California. A Collector's Choice.
1977
Stanford University Art Gallery, Stanford, California. Painting and Photography: An Exhibition of MFA Work.
1976
Andromeda Gallery, Buffalo, New York. 1976 Exhibition of American Photography.
Miami-Dade College, Miami, Florida, and subsequent travels.
Bicentennial Commission Traveling Exhibition of American Photography.
1974, 75, 76
Tresidder Union, Stanford University, Stanford, California. Peter Brown.***
Grants and Awards
2007
1st Glasscock School Teaching Prize, Rice University
“Peter Brown Day” declared, City of Houston, Mayor Bill White, Nov. 3, 2007
2005
Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize (with Kent Haruf)
2003
Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Grant to photograph the Llano Estacado
2000
Texas Institute of Letters, Fred Whitehead Award - (On ThePlains.) Molly Renda, designer.
1999
Alfred Eisenstaedt Award. (Photo-essay DoubleTake).
1997
Cultural Arts Council of Houston Visual Artist's Grant.
1996
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Grant.
1990
National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photographer's Fellowship.
1988
Cultural Arts Council of Houston Publication Grant.
1986-88
Rice University Cullinan Chair Commission.
1982-92
Rice University Research Grants.
1983
Imogen Cunningham Award (Seasons of Light).
1977
Carnegie Fellowship.
1976
Mileo Award.
Selected Publications
2008
Excerpt from “West of Last Chance”, Harpers Magazine January 2008
Excerpt from “West of Last Chance”, 5280 Magazine, December 2007
Feature on “West of Last Chance”, PDN Magazine, Edgar Allen Beem, June 2008
Feature on “West of Last Chance”, PhotoIcon Magazine, Issue 5, 2008 Mike Von Joel
2007
Review of “The Nature of Photographs,” Stephen Shore, Spot, Fall 2007
2005
“Finding the Shape in the Wood”, Interview with Robert Adams, be published in a book of Adams’ interviews by Yale University Press, 2005
“CrossleyFired”, Interview with David Crossley, Spot, Fall 2004
2004
“Gay Block: Unblocked” Review, Spot, Spring
Cover photograph, “Yuma, Colorado” of Kent Haruf’s book Eventide, Knopf.
Cover photograph, “Rolling Bales, Miles City MT” of Jane Smiley’s novel A Thousand Acres, Random House.
“Halfway Cemetery, Halfway, Texas” Southwest Art, May. Profile and photograph.
“Plain Sight” Portfolio of work and profile, American Cowboy, July/August.
2003
Cover photograph, “White Barn, Mountain Park, Oklahoma”, of Annie Proulx’s novel, That Old Ace in the Hole. Scribners.
2002
Review of “Afterimage”, by Helen Humphreys, DoubleTake
“Heath”, essay and photo-essay, DoubleTake
Photographs of Steel House, Lubbock, Robert Bruno, dwell
“Floral Fields” photo-essay, fields of wildflowers, House and Garden
2000
“The Brown Sisters” review, Spot, Spring.
“Fayetteville” photograph, The New Yorker, February 21&28, 2000.
“H.A.C. Brummett, Lawyer,” photograph, Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Alison de Lima Greene, Harry N. Abrams.
1999
“Railroad Tracks, south central Oklahoma” photograph, The New Yorker, September 27, 1999 “Great Plains,” excerpt from the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award winning photo-essay, Life,
special issue devoted to the best magazine photography of 1999.
“The Plainsman,” cover photograph and portfolio published in the July issue of Texas Monthly.
“The Tibetans,” Steve Lehman, Duke Magazine, May/June, review
“The Elusive City: Photographs by Paul Hester,” Spot, Spring, review.
1998
The Humanist Landscapes of Humphrey Spender, DoubleTake, Fall, review.
Waste Land - David Hanson, Spot, Spring, review.
The Artist's Window, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, photograph in calendar published by the museum.
1997
Great Plains, DoubleTake, Winter 1997-98, photographs and essay. (Winner of the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award.)
20th Anniversary CD-ROM, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon.
Charles Schorre, Spot, Fall 1997, review.
H.A.C. Brummett, Lawyer, Life, April, photograph.
Heaven of Animals: Keith Carter, DoubleTake, Spring 1997, review.
Stieglitz, Spot, Spring, 1997, review.
1996
“One Life – Several Landscapes,” Spot, Spring, essay on Robert Adams
1995
“From the Edge: Images of the World,” Spot, Sping, review.
1993
Aki Climbing, postcard published by the Museum of Modern Art.
Untitled, Austin, Nevada, cover photograph of New Essays by Denise
Levertov. New Directions.
The Challenge of Prophetic Christianity: Essays in Honor of Robert
McAfee Brown. Orbis Books. A photo essay on my father.
1992
Aperture Our Town, Spring. Frontispiece, Mullinsville, Kansas.
Cite, Working At Home, photographs.
1991
The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, photographs. (Book by Peter Galassi.)
Cemetery, Fort Davis, Texas. Cover photograph of Campo Santos . Louisiana State University Press. (Book by Susan Wood.)
1990
Wimberley, Popular Photography, May, photograph.
Henry M. Briard Stadium, View, Texas, Fotometro, San Francisco.
1989
Food Festival, Cite, Spring/Summer, photograph.
1988
A Dog's Life, Spot, Fall, photograph and story.
1987
Lone Star Statement, American Photographer, May, photographs.
1986
Thoughts on the State of Photography, Spot. Summer, essay.
1985
Richard Misrach: Desert Cantos, Spot, Winter, interview.
1983
Venues For Trial by Jury, Image. Fall, review.
Two True Stories and The Places I Took This Photograph, Image, Spring, photographs and stories.
The Bedrock of God's High School, American Photographer, May, photograph and story.
1982
At the Races, American Photographer, June, photograph and story.
Clothesline, American Photographer, September, photograph and story.
1976
Popular Photography Annual, 1976, photograph.
Aura, volume I, #2, photograph.
1975
Sequoia, Summer/Autumn, photographs.
The Stanford Review, Spring, photographs.
Selected Permanent Collections
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.
The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The J. Paul Getty Museum.
The Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California.
The Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
The Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
The Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, California.
The Rice University Collection, Houston, Texas.
The Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Spencer Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
The Center for Great Plains Studies Art Collection, University of Nebraska Lincoln.
The University of Kentucky Museum of Art, Lexington, Kentucky.
The Davenport Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa.
The Graham Center Museum, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
The Louisville Photo Archives, Louisville, Kentucky.
The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio.
The Snipe Museum, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana.
The University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas.
The Gernsheim Collection, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
The University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma.
The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, California.
The Piton Foundation, Boulder, Colorado.
The United States State Department.
PaineWebber Collection, New York.
First National Bank, Boston, Massachusetts.
A.G. Edwards, St. Louis, Missouri.
A.M. SouthBank, Birmingham, Alabama.
Sprint, Wichita, KansasSterling Winthrop Collection, Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fluor, Denver, Colorado.
Amoco, Denver, Colorado.
First National Bank, Denver, Colorado.
Q Up Systems, Austin, Texas.
Vinson and Elkins, Austin, Texas.
The Four Seasons, Austin, Texas
Graves, Dougherty, Hearon and Moody, Austin, Texas.
USSA, San Antonio, Texas.
First USA Bank, Dallas, Texas.
Sidley and Austin, Dallas, Texas.
The Houstonian, Houston, Texas.
Compaq, Houston, Texas.
Microsoft, Houston, Texas.
KPMG, Houston, Texas.
Duke Energy, Houston, Texas.
ERI, Houston, Texas.
Wilson Industries, Houston, Texas.
Texas Gas, Houston, Texas.
M Bank, Houston, Texas.
Interfirst Bank, Houston, Texas.
Latigo, Houston, Texas.
Vinson & Elkins, Houston, Texas.
Armogida & Coats, Houston, Texas.
Aikin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Houston, Texas.
Engelhard & Polland, Houston, Texas.
Mayor, Caldwell, & Day, Houston, Texas.
Schlanger, Cook, Cohn, Mills, & Grossberg, Houston, Texas.
Thomson and Knight, Houston, Texas.
NCNB Bank, Houston, Texas
Interfin, Houston, Texas
Caddell and Conwell, Houston, Texas
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