Peter Bunnell

Peter Curtis Bunnell (October 25, 1937 – September 20, 2021) was an American author, scholar and historian of photography. For more than 40 years he had a significant impact on collecting, exhibiting, teaching and practicing photography through his work as a university professor, museum curator and prolific author.

Early life and education Peter Curtis Bunnell was born on October 25, 1937, in Poughkeepsie, New York.

He received an undergraduate degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studied with photographer Minor White, and an M.F.A. from Ohio University,

He then went on to receive an M.A. degree in art history from Yale University, and later became an associate in the Alfred Stieglitz Archive at the university. In 1970, he was named the Curator of the Department of Photography at the Museum. That same year he curated a show at the museum called Photography into Sculpture, the first comprehensive survey of photographically formed images used in a sculptural manner. The show has been called "one of the great contributions to the history of photography" due to its intent to redefine photography in a new spatial concept.

From 1973 to 1978 Bunnell was also the Director of the Princeton University Art Museum, He later served as Curator of the Minor White Archive and as Curator of Photography at Princeton University Art Museum.

In 2002, Bunnell retired from his post at Princeton. That same year the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of postage stamps called Masters of American Photography featuring photographers and images selected by Bunnell.

Death Bunnell died on September 20, 2021, in Princeton, New Jersey,

Diane Arbus's Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 sold for $215,900, and a selection by Edward Steichen brought $53,340 - just shy of triple the high estimate. Garry Winogrand's World's Fair, New York City (1964) for $40,640. Also represented in his personal collection were works by Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and of course, his mentor Minor White.

Publications

Jerry N. Uelsmann: An Aperture Monograph (1970) Barbara Morgan (1972) Nonsilver Printing Processes: Four Selections 1886–1927 (1973) Harry Callahan (1978) Altered Landscapes: The Photographs of John Pfahl (1981) Edward Weston on Photography (1983)