Pete Brook
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Articles by Pete Brook
Conflict Photographer's Best Pictures Are Some of Humanity's Worst Moments
Moises Saman Moises Saman SYRIA. Aleppo. March 21, 2013. Rebels gather for the funeral of a fellow fighter in the rebel-held Salahedin district. Moises Saman is one of the leading conflict photographers of our time. In recent years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Libya. In the August Issue of WIRED, Saman's photographs and interviews from Aleppo in Syria accompanied Matthieu Aikins' article about bomb-makers in the rebel homemade arms industry.
Mushroom-Hunting Photos Recall Gold Rush-Era Living
Photographer Eirik Johnson used to go hunting mushrooms as a kid. Ferreting about in the woods of the Pacific Northwest was a family day out – getting outdoors and getting hands filthy was the goal, and any mushroom finds, a bonus. But when Johnson moved back to his native Seattle a few years ago, and heard his forager friends talk about the significant commercial mushroom hunting in the surrounding national forests, he knew it was culture to be explored ... and photographed.
The Story Behind the Legendary Magnum Archive Sale
Last week, one of the most important photojournalism archives in history, the Magnum Photo Agency's press prints collection, was sold to Michael Dell of Dell computers. Specifically, to Dell’s private investment firm, MSD Capital LP. The collection will be housed by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin. “Right place, right time, right people.” That's how Eli Reed, Magnum photographer and photojournalism professor at the school, summed up the deal.
These photographers are challenging how we think about prison
In 1974, Arthur Tress stepped out into the yard of Sing Sing Prison, a maximum security facility in New York, with a camera in hand and a challenge to face. He’d been a photographer since the age of 12, when he first began shooting circus freaks and dilapidated buildings around Coney Island. Along the way, he developed an intuitive practice by mixing documentary with fantasy and calling it social surrealism.
Buy Art and Free Incarcerated Mamas on Mother’s Day
THE FIGHT against mass incarceration takes many forms: from protesting outside prisons, to blocking jail construction, to journalism that reaches inside, to hearing prisoners’ voices, to making oneself aware of gross abuses, to viewing the most gruesome pictures, to letter writing, to education and more. Sometimes the fight requires coming together and “hacking” the system by sucking up costs collectively and *joyously* paying bail.
Inside the Isolated Catholic Town Built by the Founder of Domino's
Rylan Steele’s photographs of the planned Catholic community of Ave Maria will, for many people, reinforce the idea that Florida is a strange place that creates crazy headlines. That is not his intention, nor is he ridiculing religion. Rather, Steele’s series Ave Maria: One Man’s Vision is a long look at the long development of an idiosyncratic place. Ave Maria was conceived of, and largely funded, by Tom Monaghan, the devout founder of Domino’s Pizza.
You Can Help Make One of the Biggest Indie Photo Books Ever
Mossless has put out just two issues of its magazine, and for its third issue, the new photography publishing outfit is putting out a book–a very large book. With 550 photographs by more than 100 American photographers, it will fill more than 280 pages. It might be the largest independent photography publication ever made. If it gets made. Mossless founder and editor Romke Hoogwaerts wants your help.
Inside London's Secret Crisis-Command Bunker
If nuclear attack or civil breakdown ever threatens the United Kingdom, the heads of government and the military know where to go. Beneath the streets of London, deeper than the capital’s famous Tube system, exists a hidden bunker on constant standby. Replete with blast doors, a broadcast studio and a giant screen resembling CNN's massive touchscreen wall on The Situation Room, this nuclear safe house sits in wait for the end of the world.
Why I Included “Diary of a Sex Tourist” in the Medium Collection I Edit
Yesterday, I included an existing Medium story, by Peter Schafer, in the Vantage publication. Diary of a Sex Tourist is a very unusual account. Firstly, a man is speaking frankly about his use of sex workers in the Dominican Republic. Secondly, the man is a photographer who chose to pay for services in order that he could get closer and, by his appraisal, make better images.
Jeff Adachi, Public Defender
An editor’s note: Both Jeff Adachi and Pete Brook are my friends, people I know through my photo work in the criminal justice system. Pete Brook has been concerned with the use and power of images in conjunction with the criminal justice system for many years. I meet Jeff sometime in 1995 when he was a deputy public defender working a murder case. I spent 18 months and we remained friends. A memorial in the lobby of the SF Public Defender’s office. On Friday the 22nd of February Jeff Adachi died.
One Small Town's Fight to Banish a Brutal Mexican Cartel
On April 15th, 2011 a group of women in the Mexican town of Cherán started a mini revolution when they stepped into the road and blocked an armed convoy of trucks loaded with ancient oaks. For years, the surrounding forest had been decimated by loggers backed by the La Familia Michoacana cartel. As the women hurled rocks and fireworks at the convoy, church bells rang out, calling more people to join them. The loggers returned no fire and eventually fled.
Why Would Anyone Hike the Pacific Crest Trail?
“Why are you hiking the Pacific Crest Trail?” was a question I got asked a lot leading up to my departure on April 19, 2016 from the trail’s southern end in Campo, California, right by the Mexican border. But, since starting the trail, fewer people ask. Hiking the PCT: 2016 I set out in April on a six-month trek north along the 2,650-mile trail. I'll be filing dispatches every two weeks. Follow my journey here.
These Photos of Prepper Bags Hold a Mirror to Society
Not content with merely imagining disaster, preppers lurch toward it. They play out fearful futures, buying survival goods and stockpiling basements with supplies. They have bought in — spiritually, financially, and politically — to the worst worst-case scenarios. Motivated by an array of politics and theories, preppers do seem to be united, at least, by anxiety and alarm, and Allison Stewart’s Bug Out Bag puts this national portrait of fear on display.
Complete Idiocy Makes for Pretty Amazing Fireworks Photos
Chances are you enjoyed some fireworks earlier this month for July 4th. But we’re sorry to tell you that Mexico does explosions better than the United States. The proof is in Thomas Prior‘s heart-racing photographs from the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec. The annual nine-day festival attracts more than 100,000 people to bathe in the glow of pyrotechnicians’ expert displays.
Captivating Photos of Detroit Delve Deep to Reveal a Beautiful, Struggling City
In the past 40 years, the number of people living in the city of Detroit has halved. This has led many to write it off – in many ways, wrongly – as a decrepit ghost town. Unbroken Down is a photo project that counters the images of abandoned buildings with personal, vibrant shots of everyday life in Detroit.
Astronaut Suicide Photos Inspired by Shuttle Program’s End
The space shuttle Atlantis completed its final flight last month, bringing pride and bittersweet nostalgia to many Americans. But what about our beloved, symbolic astronaut? What will he do now that he’s out of the hero business? Piggy-backing on the mixed emotions of the country about the end of NASA’s space shuttle program, photographer Neil DaCosta and art director Sara Phillips produced a darkly comic project by staging fictitious last moments of a distraught anonymous, unemployed astronaut.
Photos of San Francisco’s first mustachioed cycling fanatics put today’s bike hipsters to shame
A critical mass of “bone shakers” and “high wheelers” changed transportation in 19th century California, but spurred carnage overseas “Bicyclists in front of Isaac L. Requa residence, Highland Avenue and Hazel Lane, Piedmont, California.” Undated. Courtesy: California Historical Society. In November 1891, Walter M. Brunt, captain of the California Cycling Club, sent an invitation to fellow members to pose for a group portrait.
20 years of prison polaroids chart son’s resolve
In publishing his family photos, Davi Russo aims to help others impacted by incarceration Frame 9. 1988. “The hardest time when you’re locked up is the holidays; Christmas is the hardest of all. It’s supposed to be a time for the young and the young-at-heart to enjoy and celebrate. A time to spend with your mate and children.
Google’s Copyright Policy Spawns Mega-Meta Art From China
The Google Art Project allows art enthusiasts to visit distant museums online by scanning them with the same 15-lens camera rigs used by Google Street View. Due to copyright restrictions, however, certain paintings needed to be blurred, just like faces are in GSV. British artist Phil Thompson was intrigued by the foggy interruptions. His project Copyrights is his exploration of Google’s grand, utopian exercise in bringing culture to the masses.
These photos of growing up in the Bay Area suburbs tell a story of innocence and disaffection
Mimi Plumb captured the clearing of orchards and farms for subdivisions Since the 1950s, exponential growth has pushed the San Francisco Bay Area built environment into, and over, the wetlands, valleys and hills of the region. What were once rural outposts are now commuter towns, villages are malls, farms are paved over and the ranches boxed in. In the postwar era, Walnut Creek transformed from a pastoral small town into the wealthy enclave east of the Oakland Hills that it is today.
These photographers are challenging how we think about prison
In 1974, Arthur Tress stepped out into the yard of Sing Sing Prison, a maximum security facility in New York, with a camera in hand and a challenge to face. He’d been a photographer since the age of 12, when he first began shooting circus freaks and dilapidated buildings around Coney Island. Along the way, he developed an intuitive practice by mixing documentary with fantasy and calling it social surrealism.
Awesome Geek Expo Portraits Showcase Playful American Characters
As a globetrotting freelance journalist, Jake Warga has never struggled to explain and photograph the cultures of foreign lands, but Americans, of which he is one himself, were always an elusive species. That is, until he trained his lens on U.S. expos and conventions. “It’s difficult to describe the outside of the house when you are inside of it,” says Warga, 40, who lives in Seattle.
These vivid 1980s photos show gritty San Francisco cab life in the days before Uber
‘Driving cabs is a funny game. You meet random people in random order.’ “He’s looking out the side window, I’m looking in the rear view mirror,” says Washburn.
Artist Maps Apple’s UI Onto the Louvre’s Masterpieces
Inspired and perplexed by our image-saturated culture, French artist Leo Caillard has cast the Louvre as a larger than life playlist of masterpieces. In Caillard’s digitally rendered images, paintings display navigation elements from iTunes, iOS and Mac OS X. Museum goers flip through famous works like they would the albums of their music collection. Is it bad that we wish the Louvre really worked like this?
Paranoid Dictator’s Communist-Era Bunkers Now a National Nuisance
In Albania, 750,000 Communist-era bunkers populate the landscape, relics of the paranoia and skewed priorities of former dictator Enver Hoxha. Now they exist as quirky homes, animal shelters, ad hoc storage and make-out spots. The peculiar program of bunkerization, which lasted Hoxha’s entire 40-year rule, resulted in one bunker for every four citizens.
You Are Not a Unique Snowflake: Desk Jobs Suck Everywhere
When Louis Quail, a photographer in the U.K., worked in an office at the age of 19, he was not a fan. “It was the most tedious job in the world for me,” says Quail, who analyzed teachers’ pay increments in the offices of Kingston Council in Surrey, U.K. “It required just enough brain power that you couldn’t switch off. It was a slow torture.” Since 2006, Quail has photographed offices in Russia, South Africa, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Cambodia, United Arab Emirates, Santo Domingo and China.
The Merciless World of Mining, Made Beautiful in Abstract Photos
Vermont is the Green Mountain State, but it is the bedrock beneath the verdant hills that defines the state's identity and history. Vermont marble has played a key role in building America, and it would be difficult to find a significant building or monument that doesn't have it. We've been cutting chunks of marble out of the mountains of Vermont since 1785.
Restless Nights Inspire Artist’s Spectral Photos
Artist Robert Knight’s long-exposure photography visualizes people’s nocturnal movements as they sleep, or don’t, throughout the night. His photo project, Sleepless, consists of ghostly aggregations of subjects tossing and turning. The idea for the series came from his own bout of insomnia after he and his wife became parents. “Before having kids, sleep was something that I more or less took for granted,” says Knight.
Apple Store Photos Lifted, Now Subject of New Art Exhibit
That impulsive duck-face kissy photo you took of yourself and your friend at the Apple store to test out the new iPad’s camera may be destined for an art gallery wall. That is if you happened to snap it at any of the Apple stores visited by Irby Pace. “On a daily basis people are leaving their portraits behind on iPhones, iPads and iPods,” says Pace who in late 2010 retrieved over 1,000 images from Apple products in stores across Texas and New York City.
Stolen Gear Is Small Hurdle for Year-Long Photo Project
On New Year’s Day in Jackson, Mississippi, traveling photographer Theron Humphrey returned to his parked Toyota pickup truck to find the cab window smashed. His camera gear, totaling over $6,000, was gone. A disheartening way to ring in the new year.
Keeping a Wolf at Home to Save the Species
Getting photos of wolves is difficult. It usually requires traveling into the farthest reaches of North America or other remote locations. But photographer Camille Seaman in Oakland only needed to cross the San Francisco Bay to find one for her latest project. Aqutaq, a two year-old female white wolf (aka arctic wolf), lives in Marin County in the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais with owner Oliver Starr.
Gory Snake-Slaying Fest Is Strange New Revelry for Rowdy Photog
If the snakes of the world ever see David Kasnic’s photos of Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up, humans should justifiably fear a serpentine uprising. While gruesome, Kasnic‘s visit to the rattlesnake cull in rural Texas was actually a point of personal redemption. Prior to his trip to the Lone Star State, his work was all about sex, drugs and partying in Kentucky where he attended college. “I got into the idea of living your work, which was a really bad idea,” explains Kasnic.
Nuclear Vistas Take Aim at Tourists’ Mindless Stares
Some overlooks are spectacular; others not so much. Sometimes the only thing that recommends a view is the attentive slump of observers already at the scene. It’s a phenomenon that photographer and designer Clay Lipsky has cleverly identified in his new project Atomic Overlook, for which he’s photographed a series of these vistas and superimposed a nuclear explosion so the subjects have a compelling reason to be there.
Mexican Border Project Documents Those Who Make Art, Not War
In the years since Mexico, under former President Felipe Calderón, declared war on the drug cartels of Mexico in 2006, most of the photojournalism from the border has focused on the inevitable violence. With more than 60,000 people dead and another 25,000 missing, such attention is warranted, and vital. Yet there’s more to the border region than just gunfire and body counts.
Bee Close-Ups Reveal the Glorious Beauty of Our Troubled Friends
There are some 4,000 native bee species in the United States, and photographer Clay Bolt has spent years photographing them for Beautiful Bees. The gorgeous project is a tool for researchers, eye-candy for those of us who love bees and effort to get everyone else to see bees as something more than bugs. When most people think of bees, they think of the European honeybee. It is among the most beloved insects, a mainstay of American agriculture and the pollinator of choice for countless crops.
Patterns as Priorities: Aerial Supermax Prison Photos Echo Shapes of Suburbia
High above the Arizona desert in 2010, after a day of photographing housing developments, Christoph Gielen looked down from the helicopter upon Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence. The hexagonal arrangement of the prison site, to him, replicated the six-sided concentric order of suburbs he’d shot previously. That chance observation kickstarted a three-year project called American Prison Perspectives, in which Gielen examines the architecture of Supermax prisons via aerial photos.
Photog Gives Migrant Workers the Superhero Treatment
Mexican photographer and a former New York resident Dulce Pinzon casts the Mexican migrant workers of New York City as superheroes -– in costume, at their jobs and within our midst. Superheroes (2004–ongoing) intends to broaden our collective definition of the term hero, a label often used in American culture, but not always applied to the heroic everyday acts of work and family commitments.
Photos of Towns Destroyed by Japan's Tsunami, Three Years Later
On the third anniversary of the devastating Japanese earthquake, Shin Yahiro’s commemorative re-photography project gives a visualization to passing time and a small glimpse into the impact of the disaster. Yahiro photographed in the town of Onagawa in Miyagi four days after the tsunami struck and has since photographed in the cities of Kesennuma, Rikuzentakada and Ōtsuchi.
Curl Up Next to a Trucker in These Night Photos of Rest Stops
Within the trucking community, the phrase “seeing the black dog” is used to describe hallucinations that occur as a result of sleep deprivation. “When truckers see black dogs scampering across the highway they know to pull over and get some sleep,” says photographer Michael Massaia, who made the hunt for the black dog a personal photographic project, spending many a night at New Jersey Turnpike truck stops.
The Slavery Next Door
The abuse might be going on in your town. Victims may be under coercion in your neighbourhood. Slaves and masters may be on your street. If that sounds far-fetched take a look at Amy Romer‘s project The Dark Figure* and you’ll learn that modern day slavery is diffuse throughout Britain. In recent years, cases of contemporary slavery, forced work and forced prostitution have been detected and prosecuted in villages, towns and cities in every region of the UK.
An Incredible Fantasy World Mapped With Google Street View
From German forests to the French Pyrenees, from the Rock of Gibraltar to Iceland’s tundra, artist Aaron Hobson spends endless hours traversing continents looking for eye-catching scenes. He’s a digital tourist and travel photographer, grabbing images from exotic locales in Google Street View (GSV) rather than mess with planes, climbing gear, or snow shoes.
16 Lessons Learned on the Pacific Crest Trail
I spent six months walking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer. The transformative trek shifted my worldview, and revealed new insights and previously unknown strengths. And that’s just my personal experience. I also wanted to know what my fellow thru-hikers learned, so I started questioning them once I reached Washington—after more than 2,000 miles on the trail. Over 1,800 thru-hikers hit the PCT this year. I talked with 16 of them.
Pot Shots: Drive-By Photos of L.A.’s Transient Marijuana Dispensaries
Sometimes photography doesn’t need to be complicated. Take Pot Shots, for example, a project shot from a car with an iPhone over the course of a couple months. Artist Ryan Mungia and cultural anthropologist Jim Heimann both noticed how marijuana dispensaries were popping up across Los Angeles, where they live, and realized there were very few photos of them if any existed at all.
In Defense of Trail Angels
Outsiders plying thru-hikers with sodas and chicken wings might appall purists, but trail magic is here to stay—and that's a very good thing For long-distance hikers, acts of charity on the trail, even of small things, assume huge significance. (Photo: Micky Wiswedel/Stocksy) While logging 1,800 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail this summer, I thought a lot about how trail angels shaped my hike.
Are Juvenile Detention Centers harming our children and harming society?
Knowing that sexual abuse in juvenile detentions is high and on the rise while the number of children in detention centers is decreasing is alarming. It is especially concerning that children who may have already been abused by those who are to protect them are put into a situation of another authority figure who is supposed to protect them abusing them once again. Social learning theory tells us role modeling is one way children learn behavior.
The 6 Best Photographers Hiking the PCT Right Now
From the British Empire’s efforts in the 19th century to document and control territories to Ansel Adams' conservationist agenda, pictures of landscapes have established narratives and swayed public opinion. For over 150 years, photographers have trained their eyes on the transformation of our wild spaces and helped dismantle a lot of our blind romance toward the West. PCT thru-hikers follow in this long tradition.
7 Pieces of Indispensable Thru-Hiking Gear
I spent months researching gear before hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I read blogs and trip reports and meticulously planned every detail to ensure I had the best, lightest kit possible. But here’s the thing: even the best planning couldn’t prepare me for real-world testing. Some of the pieces I picked up have proven invaluable. Others were left in hiker boxes almost immediately, and I had to purchase alternatives.
What Are All These Hikers Doing to the PCT?
You can’t talk about the Pacific Crest Trail without mentioning the crowds. For the first 55 years on record, starting in 1952, the most thru-hikers to attempt the full trail, starting at the Mexican border, where I started, was 300, in 2006. But in the past decade—and particularly the last four years, since the release of Cheryl Strayed's Wild—the numbers have spiked. So far, in 2016, more than 4,000 long-distance hiking permits have been issued.
What Are All These Hikers Doing to the PCT?
For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today and save 50 percent. You can’t talk about the Pacific Crest Trail without mentioning the crowds. For the first 55 years on record, starting in 1952, the most thru-hikers to attempt the full trail, starting at the Mexican border, where I started, was 300, in 2006.
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