Peter Harlow lives in Melbourne, Australia.
He was born in Oldham in northern England. Much of his early life was spent moving home with his family, as his father’s job as a British Army officer took him to different UK cities and even other countries.
At the age of 10 he started boarding school in Oxford. Flying became one of the great fascinations of his life and at the age of 17 he was granted a special scholarship by the Royal Navy to learn to fly, obtaining his private pilot license before he left school. He then attended university in London, where he gained a degree in biochemistry. He joined the college photographic society and bought his first SLR camera.
His early career was in sales – primarily of electro-medical hospital equipment – before moving into corporate communication and management training with a large US multi-national consulting company. In his spare time he took up freelance aerial photography and his images were used in a number of annual reports and company statements.
During this time, he married and had three children, who are all now themselves married with children and living in France. With family and financial commitments, his pilot license lapsed and for many years his flying was relegated to a dream. His first marriage ended and five years later he met and married his current partner, Louise, who is a visual artist.
In 2001 they both emigrated to Australia, where Louise grew her studio and Peter, with his rekindled love of flying, formed a company to market, sell and support a small range of single-engine light aircraft.
One memorable trip to Lake Eyre, in central Australia, in one of these aircraft with Louise taking photographs, was instrumental in forming his love of abstract landscapes and surreal patterns which can only be seen from the air. This was the beginning of his dream of becoming an abstract aerial photographer.
However, capturing photos while flying an aircraft is difficult as he had to control the aeroplane, remain above safety height limits and, most importantly, keep moving, so the views, however stunning, were transient, fleeting and hard to capture. With the advent of drone technology, which enables the camera platform to remain static and fly much closer to the surface, he can now explore the landscape from new angles and perspectives, capturing images that were impossible from an aeroplane.
His aerial photographs have won several awards, and he has taken part in both joint and solo exhibitions in Melbourne, with images captured in his home state of Victoria.
To quote:
"I love the patterns and textures made by the sun, wind and waves - sometimes modified by human hand. Views from the sky reveal otherwise unseen colours and geometries and, from a viewpoint of less than a hundred metres above the surface, you can enter a new world of dreamlike images."
Artist statement:
One of the key elements of abstract art is the process of abstraction, where artists take familiar objects and break them down into their essential components. Similarly, my photographs capture landscapes from above, abstracting the natural world into a series of shapes, colours and textures that are sometimes quite different from their original form.
By removing the context of the wider landscape, I want to encourage the viewer to see the world in a new light, as a collection of abstract forms that are both beautiful and intriguing. In abstracting the landscape, my aim is to create a body of work that challenges your perceptions and invites you to see the beauty and charm that exists all around us.
