Bio
Exhibitions

Bio

Throughout my life, I’ve been a free thinker and traveller, involved with photography and alternative intentional communities. I’ve wandered for years, getting in touch with how people live, rich and poor, all over the world. These experiences inspire me to make art that gets people thinking about the conventions we live in, our past, our culture and our part in it. In my photography, I use overlapping negatives to juxtapose images that creates thought about what life is today.

Born April 27, 1972 in Vancouver, BC, I was as adopted by Terry and Madeline Peer. My dad is a German-American Vietnam vet and my mom is an only child from London. I was very close to my grandfather, we share the same birthday. After he died, I picked up his camera and started taking photos.

Growing up in Surrey, I witnessed racial violence and saw farmland and forest change into suburban sprawl. This opened my eyes at a young age to how different cultures collide and grow together.

My whole understanding of the planet and where we are today is reflected in my photography. Seeing and experiencing all different cultures through travel allowed me to understand the global picture, and how we affect the planet and other cultures.

After high school I went to South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore and got my first taste of world travel. I returned home to attend college studying history and philosophy, then art through sculpture and ceramics. After graduating, I continued my travels through eastern Mediterranean and Africa visiting historical sites in Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Italy.

Inspired to play with art further I attended Emily Carr focusing on ceramics. In my work I explored the juxtaposition between earth and gravity. I also experimented with crystalline glazes on ceramics and photography.

I traveled again in Europe seeking new expression for myself. I got involved in photo documenting what was going on in countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary. I was developing my eye and becoming more of a photographer. I shot rolls and rolls of film because it felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t understand what I was doing until years later when I used these images in my current work.

In the middle of art school. I continued my world travels through all the major continents, doing documentary photography in India, Cambodia, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Peru, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and such far off places such as Papua New Guinea, Tibet and Easter Island.

Feeling that I have a voice that needs to be heard, I’m now fully involved in creating art. I’m also getting involved in yoga and meditation, following a spiritual existence that I’ve always felt.

Nigel Brooks Peer