Peter Randall is the founder and first president of the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists.
Please tell us a bit about the founding of NHSPA
“Forty years ago this August, I invited a group of fellow photographers to spend a weekend on Appledore Island at the Shoals Marine Laboratory. I had been thinking that nowhere in New Hampshire was there a place for non-commercial, or fine art, photographers to gather and share work and ideas.
About thirty photographers participated, including current members Gary Samson, Ian Raymond, Susan Lirakis, Jay Goldsmith, and David Putnam. We continued to meet annually until 1991. I had moved our location to Monhegan that year, but later the following winter I was diagnosed with cancer and was out of action for two years. My surgery cured the cancer but left me with a disabled leg and little ability to wander the rocky landscape of Appledore.
Several years passed and I was urged to organize another photographer gathering on Star Island. A large group met on Star about 1996, but later Star officials said a conference couldn’t just be friends of mine. We’d have to be an organization. With Gary and a few others, I organized what is now the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists. I was not excited with the name, but the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office would not accept a simpler title.
We met on Star for about 20 years, often adding a guest speaker. Some weekends we had more than forty participants.”
What drives you?
“For most of my career I have photographed for publication, mostly documenting people, places and events. After taking just two photo classes at UNH, I got a job as staff photographer for a Manchester weekly and six months later I was the editor and staff photographer for the Hampton Union weekly. This was followed by ten years at New Hampshire Profiles magazine, where I eventually became editor and continued to shoot for the publication. Starting in 1983, I have authored nine books of photographs, including three on New Hampshire and two on the Isles of Shoals. Mostly when I grab a camera there is a purpose for the images I make."
What is your favorite medium / why?
“Although I did use medium format for a while, I have mostly worked with 35mm film and digital cameras. As I have aged and my walking has declined, I now use lighter Panasonic micro four thirds equipment. I used a Linhof 6 x17 panoramic camera for a book of New Hampshire images. That camera uses 120 medium format film to make four exposures on a roll. I bracketed exposures so usually one roll was one subject.”
What are you working on now?
“As photographer for 60 years, I am currently going through my work deciding what to save. Older images are now history, visual records of people and places changed now or perhaps no longer existing.”
Thank you, Peter!
