Pete Kelly "Horse Head"
Peter Kelly was born in England in 1966, and as the son of a military man, Kelly spent most of his childhood growing up in West Germany. After leaving school Kelly enrolled in a photography course with the R.A.F Photographic Unit, based in Wildenrath in Germany. Although this initial training lasted only six months, it established a life long passion and dedication to photography. Already an avid traveller, Kelly initially decided to return to the UK to study Graphic Design at Stockport College, before moving to America in 1987. After completing an Internship at an innovative commercial photography studio in America, Peter finds his inspiration in nature and the landscape. Kelly finds a particularly strong aesthetic and power in the beauty of the urban landscape. "I try to see beauty around me, drawing beauty from ugliness by capturing close up textures of fading paint or graffiti, or by reducing the shape of the subject to silhouette." Kelly's fascination with photography, the quality, and flexibility of the medium began at a very early age. Kelly began working as a Photographers Assistant. Working closely with a range of photographers allowed him to intrinsically develop his own refined sense of aesthetic as well as develop and master photographic theory and technique. Now working as a Fine Art Photographer in his own right, Pete Kelly utilises the most cutting edge equipment and techniques, painting with photography by compositing and layering photographs digitally. This allows him to enhance and develop his ideas, concepts, compositions and subject matter without losing his initial attraction to it. "Sometimes I shoot things in stages concentrating on a specific part of a scene, and layer these pieces together later with imagery, matching perfectly the perspective, focal length, direction of light and camera angle of the former image. Ultimately returning the initial ideas into a seamless photograph."