Pete Turner

Pete Turner (May 30, 1934 – September 18, 2017) was an American photographer.

He is perhaps best known as one of the first masters of color photography. PDN  voted him as one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time and in 1981 the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) awarded him its Outstanding Achievement in Photography honor.

Noted critic A. D. Coleman described the work of Pete Turner as having "A dramatist's sense of event, intense and saturated coloration, and a distinct if indescribable otherness are omnipresent in Turner's images".

He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1956 along with classmates Bruce Davidson and Jerry Uelsmann.

His photographs are in the permanent collections of many major museums, including the Paris Foreign Missions Society(MEP), the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and International Center of Photography (ICP)[4] in New York. The George Eastman House in Rochester is the depository of Turner’s life’s work and where his retrospective exhibit, “Pete Turner: Empowered by Color”, opened in 2007.

In 1986, Turner published his first monograph, Pete Turner Photographs (Abrams). His second book, Pete Turner African Journey (Graphis Inc., 2001), documents Turner's many adventures in Africa, beginning with his trek in 1959 from Cape Town to Cairo with Wally Byam's famous Airstream caravan. The Color of Jazz (Rizzoli, 2006) is a comprehensive collection of his provocative album covers for CTI Records among many others.

Pete Turner died September 18, 2017, at his home on Long Island, New York.

Contributions to LP covers

• The Best of the Barrack Ballads, The Creed Taylor Orchestra - ABC Paramount, 1959
• Lonelyville 'The Nervous Beat', The Creed Taylor Orchestra - ABC Paramount, 1960
• The Sound of New York, Kenyon Hopkins - ABC Paramount, 1960
• The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Oliver Nelson - Impulse!, 1961
• Motion, Lee Konitz - Verve, 1961
• Perceptions, Dizzy Gillespie - Verve, 1961
• Focus, Stan Getz - Verve, 1961
• In a Latin Bag, Cal Tjader - Verve, 1961
• Live at the Village Vanguard, John Coltrane - Impulse!, 1962
• The Quintessence, Quincy Jones - Impulse!, 1962
• Further Definitions, Benny Carter - Impulse!, 1962
• Statements, Milt Jackson - Impulse!, 1962
• Count Basie and the Kansas City 7, Count Basie - Impulse!, 1962
• All the Sad Young Men, Anita O'Day - Verve, 1962
• Saturday Night/Sunday Night, Cal Tjader - Verve, 1962
• Pike's Peak, The Dave Pike Quartet - Epic, 1962
• Coltrane, John Coltrane - Impulse!, 1962
• Night Train, Oscar Peterson - Verve, 1962
• Wave, Antonio Carlos Jobim - CTI, 1967
• A Day in the Life, Wes Montgomery - A&M, 1967
• Road Song, Wes Montgomery - A&M, 1968