About Peter
Farthynge Cottage, my grandmother’s home in Oxfordshire © Kate King, 2014
“When I commenced A Few Of The Legends in 1982, I had no idea how such a seemingly simple idea, born after a boozy lunch with a bunch of inebriated photographers, would result in such a fascinating journey.
“Present were half a dozen luminaries of photography and, along with the coffees and the after-dinner mints, we started playing our own version of Photographic Trivial Pursuit: The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima? The Hindenburg Disaster? The Kent State massacre? Who made those pictures? No one could remember, and so the idea for A Few Of The Legends had its conception. However, had I known then what I know now, the outcome might have been different!
“Had I known, for example, how many miles I would travel (more than 370,000), or how many rolls of films I would use (perhaps 42,000 negatives), how many cars I would hire or flights I would board, or how many crumbling doss houses
I would sleep in and, indeed, how many hamburgers I would eat – time constraints often meant fast food was the only option – or what the final financial cost would be...
“I’m not complaining. It was an investment in myself.
During the thirty-nine years of field trips I made to complete
A Few Of The Legends, I attended 500 fascinating, one-to-one lectures.
“It was a dream education like no other.”
Above - © Peter Eastway 2019.
“He sat opposite me in a comfortable lounge, a little threadbare, with a large, glass coffee table between us. I imagined his collar turned back to front. To one side was a wall of books and, behind me, iconic and valuable photographs (such as my favourite ‘Stravinski, 1946’ by Arnold Newman and a ‘In The Box, Horizontal, 1962’ by Ruth Bernhard) and an overly large oil painting of an elaborately ornate teacup.”
“ felt like a parishioner about to receive a sermon on a shared theology. His Bible, A Few Of The Legends, reveals a complicated tapestry of thoughts, lifestyles and experiences from an eclectic concoction of social photographers. Pictorial photographers are of minor interest to Peter’s human sensibilities which explains his interest and expertise
as a portrait photographer.”
Peter Eastway