Peter Clark (He/Him)
Peter Clark is a Glasgow-based photographer, whose passion for photography grew from his urge to explore his creative side while after graduating from International Business. Through contemporary portrait and environmental photography, his work focuses primarily on identity. With his primary project, Los Otros, he delves into his cultural identity and Bolivian roots, scrutinising why Scotland and the UK, in general, have limited visibility and understanding of the Latin American community.
While Insomnus began as a speculative side project to let off steam and take a break from his main project, Peter has developed it into a very intimate portrayal of his complex relationship with his home city of Glasgow. Through his series of portraits and landscape images, he communicates his observation and his interaction with his urban environment and its inhabitants in this ethereal and omnipresent manner.
Insomnus
‘Insomnus’ is a photography series that journalises and explores my relationship with my surrounding urban space. Starting as a meditative way to calm my sleepless mind at night, this project developed into a much more introspective observation of my experiences as a night owl, capturing Glasgow’s tranquil and industrial backdrop in a visually dreamlike way with analogue photography. From living in Glasgow since around the time I began photography, I have enjoyed walks around the city at night, watching areas develop, and others wither. Passing other night dwellers often has me wondering why they wander the streets at night like me. With a combination of urban landscape photography and contemporary portraits, I capture this experience while turning the streets into my own studio using existing, un-altered locations, with shopfronts and street lighting to illuminate my images.
Los Otros
Latinxs. Our diaspora spans the entire globe and our cultural roots and identities are diverse. However, although there are a quarter-million Latin Americans that live in the UK and we are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups, there is a severe lack of visibility of the Latin American community, particularly outside of London. Not much is done to draw attention to this. The Latin American identity is subconsciously washed out by a lack of understanding and education about our cultures, resulting in young Latinxs growing up feeling lost and isolated. When growing up, I dealt with my Bolivian identity by brushing it off and trying to fit in with my white dominant environment, resulting in a loss of culture growing up. I had very little exposure to Latin American culture and didn’t know where to begin looking when I did start trying to reconnect. This issue is ultimately what ‘Los Otros’ aims to resolve.
Through this project and publication, I provide some visibility and a voice to those in this marginalised community with photography, and in doing so I hope to grow close to my Latin American roots and reconnect with the many other local Latinxs.
