Peter Massingham: biography

Peter Massingham studied photography at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, graduating in 1978. He worked as a commercial portrait photographer, then travelled extensively through SE Asia, developing a body of landscape photographs. In 1985, that work was exhibited at the Axiom Centre for the Arts, Cheltenham, where he later acted as Photography Co-ordinator.

Peter became involved in community-based education at Watershed Media Centre, Bristol. As an outreach worker and photographic tutor, he implemented the Youth Photography Programme at the Centre. A project at the Hospital For Sick Children (Bristol) culminated in a touring exhibition of photographs made by children in the cancer wards. This was followed by a period as artist-in-residence at the White City Adventure Playground in Gloucester. With the support of South West Arts, a photographic document of the life of the estate was exhibited at The Guildhall in Gloucester and Watershed in Bristol.

In 1990, Peter was Exhibitions Supervisor at Watershed. He has subsequently done teaching and consultancy work for London organizations such as Photo-Co-op, Camerawork, The Science Museum, Photofusion, Kingsway College of Art, and Getty Images. He has held teaching posts at University of West of England, University of Hertfordshire, and the Arts Institute of Bournemouth.

He is currently based in London, and spends part of each year photographing in the USA. His work has been exhibited and collected in the UK, France, Belgium, and the United States. A full C.V. may be obtained by contacting Peter on photmass@mac.com.