Peter Cunningham (photographer)

Last updated

Peter Cunningham is an American photographer who is best known for his concert and theatre photographs made in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.

Contents

Family and education

Cunningham is the eldest son of the American cloud physicist Robert M. Cunningham and his Austrian-born wife Claire Steinhardt, a chemist and high school teacher. [1] He graduated from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in 1965 and studied anthropology at Wesleyan University before taking up photography in 1969. [2] [3] Cunningham acted as assistant to Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1975 when the French photographer spent several weeks touring and photographing in New Jersey. [4] He lives on Bleecker Street in NoHo with his wife, Ara Fitzgerald. [5]

Music photography

In his early career Cunningham specialized in photographing musicians and theatrical performances and concerts. [4] : 119  Cunningham was the house photographer at the New York cabaret The Bottom Line. [6] In 1973, as his first professional assignment, he shot Bruce Springsteen's first publicity photographs for Columbia Records. [7] In 1982 Cunningham shot the first publicity photographs of Madonna for Warner Brothers. A number of images from the photo session were lost and were exhibited for the first time in 2016 after having been rediscovered. [8]

Other work

Cunningham is a Zen practitioner and a student of Bernie Glassman of the Zen Peacemaker Order. [9] He participated in and photographed the first "interfaith meditation retreat" at the Auschwitz concentration camp led by Glassman in 1997. [10] Cunningham began visiting Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy with his parents as a small child and returns to the island annually to photograph. [11]

Related Research Articles

Bruce Springsteen American singer, songwriter, and musician

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released 20 studio albums, many of which feature his backing band the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life. During a career that has spanned six decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours in length. He has been nicknamed "the Boss".

<i>Born in the U.S.A.</i> 1984 studio album by Bruce Springsteen

Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released by Columbia Records on June 4, 1984. The album's music was written by Springsteen and recorded with his E Street Band and producers Chuck Plotkin and Jon Landau at The Power Station and The Hit Factory in New York City over the course of several years. The process of recording the album was intertwined with that of his previous album, Nebraska. The cover featured an iconic photograph of Springsteen from behind, taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

<i>The River</i> (Bruce Springsteen album) 1980 album by Bruce Springsteen

The River is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released on October 17, 1980, by Columbia Records. Springsteen's only double album, The River was produced by Jon Landau, Springsteen, and bandmate Steven Van Zandt. The album was Springsteen's first to go number one on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and spent four weeks at the top of the charts. "The River" was nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance at the 1982 Grammy Awards.

Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen song) 1975 single by Bruce Springsteen

"Born to Run" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and the title song of his album Born to Run. Upon its release, music critic Robert Christgau took note of its wall of sound influence and called it "the fulfillment of everything 'Be My Baby' was about and lots more".

Lee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 1970s, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of his photographs including fragments of store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, posters and street signs.

International Center of Photography Photography museum in Manhattan, New York City

The International Center of Photography (ICP), in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. The organization was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974.

Danny Clinch American photographer and film director

Danny Clinch is an American photographer and film director.

Pamela Colleen Springsteen is an American actress and photographer. She had a short acting career, and is best known for playing the role of serial killer Angela Baker in the cult slasher/comedy/horror films Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). She had two co-starring roles in the obscure comedies Dixie Lanes (1988), The Gumshoe Kid (1990), and smaller roles in mainstream films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Reckless (1984) and Modern Girls (1986). She is now a successful photographer in Los Angeles. She is the younger sister of Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce Davidson (photographer) American photographer

Bruce Landon Davidson is an American photographer. He has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 1958. His photographs, notably those taken in Harlem, New York City, have been widely exhibited and published. He is known for photographing communities usually hostile to outsiders.

Bernie Glassman American Buddhist teacher

Bernie Glassman was an American Zen Buddhist roshi and founder of the Zen Peacemakers, an organization established in 1980. In 1996, he co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Order with his late wife Sandra Jishu Holmes. Glassman was a Dharma successor of the late Taizan Maezumi-roshi, and gave inka and Dharma transmission to several people.

Frank Stefanko is an American fine art photographer with connections to New Jersey performers Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Stefanko's early photographs, taken in the 1960s through the 1980s, reveal the emerging careers of the two young artists. Frank retains an ongoing working relationship with both Springsteen and Smith. A limited edition book was released in November 2017, entitled Bruce Springsteen: Further Up the Road. The book chronicles the 40-year working relationship between Stefanko and Bruce Springsteen. It contains personal stories and hundreds of Frank's photos from the 1960s to 2017, many never before seen.

Eric Meola is an American photographer. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 and is self-taught in the art of photography. In New York he apprenticed under photographer Pete Turner, who influenced Meola's use of saturated color and graphic design. In 1971, Meola opened a studio and began working for popular magazines such as Life, Esquire, and Time, shooting editorial photos. His work has since appeared in museum collections including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and in Munich's Museum of Modern Art. Meola's official website can be found below.

Lynn Goldsmith is an American recording artist, a film director, a celebrity portrait photographer, and one of the first female rock and roll photographers. Lynn's photographs have appeared on the covers and in publications in many countries for the past 50 years. She has done over 100 album covers. In addition to her editorial work, Goldsmith has also focused on fine art photography with conceptual images. Her photographs are in the collections of The Smithsonian among other museums and her 3D videos created in 1982 are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Annie Leibovitz American photographer

Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken five hours before Lennon's murder, is considered one of Rolling Stone magazine's most famous cover photographs. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, and she is the first woman to have a feature exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery.

Nathan Lyons was an American photographer, curator, and educator. He exhibited his photographs from 1956 onwards, produced books of his own and edited those of others.

Ed Gallucci is an American photographer currently living in South Dakota. He is the first magazine photographer to photograph Bruce Springsteen and 40 covers of Newsweek in the 1970’s thru 1990’s.

Neal Preston is a photographer based in Los Angeles, California. Preston is known primarily for his photographs of rock musicians. He has worked closely with such artists as Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and many others.

Fine art nude photography is a genre of fine-art photography which depicts the nude human body with an emphasis on form, composition, emotional content, and other aesthetic qualities. The nude has been a prominent subject of photography since its invention, and played an important role in establishing photography as a fine art medium. The distinction between fine art photography and other subgenres is not absolute, but there are certain defining characteristics.

Concert photography

Concert photography is the photography of activities relating to concerts and music. It encompasses photographs of a band or musician as well as coverage of a concert. It is a minor commercial endeavor that supports in part of the efforts for many independent photographers. The photographer will be able to travel around different venues. While doing concert photography you would have to have knowledge about photoshop.

References

  1. ↑ Cunningham, Robert M. (2 January 2005). "Robert M. Cunningham: Fogseeker" . Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Creative CV". Peter Cunningham. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Robert M. Cunningham Obituary". 15 April 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 Gambaccini, Peter (1984). Getting to the top in photography. New York, N.Y.: Amphoto. ISBN   978-0-8174-3906-4.
  5. ↑ Jacobson, Aileen (20 April 2020). "NoHo, Manhattan: A Place to 'Live and Work and Create'". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ "Janis Ian solves photo mystery". Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered. 31 July 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  7. ↑ Wender, Jessie (24 July 2012). "Bruce Springsteen: Stories behind the photographs". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  8. ↑ "Malaga : Madonna, The Birth of the Myth". The Eye of Photography. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Shambhala Sun (7 May 2013). "The Dude, the Zen master and the photographer". Lion's Roar. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Cunningham, Peter (Spring 1997). "Bearing Witness: Notes from Auschwitz". Tricycle. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  11. ↑ Landry, Mike (14 January 2014). "Chasing Their Shadows". Visual Arts News. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.