REVIEWS (SELECTED)
+++Patheos.com (online blog), Tom Rapsas, 4/25/2018
"7 Nuggets of Wisdom from One of the Last Renaissance Men What comes through in I Give My Eyes is that Peterson cares and thinks deeply about life and the reason for his and our existence. His mind seems to be figuratively exploding with thought... He conveys the exuberance and passion of a man squeezing every last drop from life."
+++Kirkus Reviews, 5/2018
"A photographer and museum curator's collection of meditations and conversations on art, writing, and life in general . . . An irreverent, heartfelt work that cheerfully wanders through somber topics." --Kirkus Reviews
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 5/13/2011
"[Peterson] brings to the task a particular sensitivity to color that glows with an inner life...Some of these photos express a radiant fusion of earth, water, and sky, as if the intention was to transcend both nature and photography and affirm anew, with lucid unity, all life."
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 9/03/10
"The show continually touches a vein of experience in its 40-plus photos, the most recent documenting explorations of aging, illness, and transcendence. Ultimately, the appealing thing about the work is its optimism."
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 2/13/09
“Brian H. Peterson, a composer of music before making it as a photographer, again becomes a composer, moving pixels around with his computer in his ‘Fire Music’ images. In their eerie tension and vigor, these ‘linear landscapes’ seem more like handsomely innovative woodcuts than the frenzied strokes of flame they are.”
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 5/1/2005
"Peterson's active search for outdoor subjects springs from a patient and gentle vision... Often poetic and mysterious, his pictures show movement, avoiding the noisy splashes of light for quieter tones."
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Edward J. Sozanski, 7/25/03
“By opting for tightly focused views, which obscure the identity of the subjects, and shifting his prints into a range of dark tones, he achieves a consistently poetic lyricism... Peterson displays mastery of using light not only to define natural forms but to make them shimmer with the music of creation.”
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 1/19/03
“Peterson takes an improvised approach to portraiture. He portrays unscripted moments witH people he knows personally and cherishes. None of these photos are celebrity portraits, face-to-face confrontations, or pictures made to fill a journalistic niche. Instead they are judgments of character—the subject’s and his own.”
+++Art Matters, Helene Ryesky, February 2003
“Peterson’s series ‘Portraits, 1998–2002’ is a profound tribute to what he calls his personal 'community... You will become accepting of the gift of his having been nourished by his community and you will have a new way of seeing and appreciating your own community.”
+++Intercounty Newspapers, Scott Edwards, 5/17/01
“Peterson’s photographs evoke contemplation… [He] searches below the surface of nature’s familiar forms for new perceptions created by the poetics of light and the harmony of composition.”
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Edward J. Sozanski, 5/16/97
“Peterson is as much a poet as he is a scientific observer… These are pictures about the power of ambient light to transform the mundane into something magically poetic.”
+++Art Matters, Adrienne Redd, May 1997
“Each preserving a solitary moment of perception, the only raiment of these images is the light draping and enfolding them; the only point of reference is the impression of a moment of reverie.”
+++The Newark Star-Ledger, Mitchell Seidel, 9/29/96
“The random patterns of jagged rock tend to take on a man-made quality, as if belonging to the stone foundation of some long-lost temple… As the years have gone by, Peterson’s vision has become increasingly avant-garde.”
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 10/8/95
“Peterson’s art creates an image of the wholeness of experience that includes our objective perception of nature and our inner life… Peterson’s show offers a veritable ode to intimations of immortality.”
+++Collage, quarterly publication of the Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster PA; Ellen Rosenholtz, Director; summer, 1995.
“Brian Peterson uses the camera to capture movement, contrasts of light and dark, and the visible that is often taken for granted… Peterson’s photographs transcend the realm of objects to speak about matters of the soul.”
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Victoria Donohoe, 8/29/93.
"… these water pictures embody exactly those attributes that made a number of his earlier works impressive: carefully honed tension and balance, and especially an insistence on constant movement in and around the piece."
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Edward J. Sozanski, 3/26/93.
"Peterson's efforts are engaging. He depicts light emerging from shadow, so the images all seem a bit mystical, like metaphors for creation itself… When he shows you a tiny twig glowing as if charged with a heavenly aura, you can almost see the aura yourself."
+++The Philadelphia Inquirer, Edward J. Sozanski, 6/13/91.
"In his prints, nudes, rocks and vegetables all generate similar rhythms and evoke equivalent responses. They define a universal vocabulary of form that helps one to appreciate the underlying harmony of nature."