Turner, Pete. Pete Turner: Empowered by Color by Pete Turner. August 12, 2006–February 4, 2007.

George Eastman House, 2006. Exhibition curated by Sean Corcoran. Introduction with interview of Pete Turner. [About Pete Turner (1934–2017), critic A.D. Coleman wrote, "A dramatist's sense of event, intense and saturated coloration, and a distinct if indescribable otherness are omnipresent in Turner's images." Turner produced the photos for more than 100 LP album covers by such artists as John Coltrane, George Benson, Dizzie Gillespie, and Sister Sledge.] Wraps, 24 pages, like new. Uncommon.  Summary:

Pete Turner: Empowered by Color is a 24-page exhibition catalog published on the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition that ran from August 12, 2006, to February 4, 2007, celebrating the career of American photographer Pete Turner (1934–2017). The publication features an introduction and an intimate interview with Turner, highlighting his legacy as one of the true pioneers of creative color photography.

Key Content and Themes

• The Evolution of a Master Colorist: The catalog traces Turner’s career across several decades, gathering over 60 of his most significant photographs. The collection spans from his early, formative 1959 expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, to his iconic commercial work, and up to his 2005 architectural studies in Mexico.

• Pre-Digital Innovation: A central theme is Turner’s historic mastery of analog color manipulation. Long before the advent of digital editing software, Turner pushed the boundaries of the medium by utilizing extreme filtration, in-camera double exposures, and complex darkroom techniques to artificially amplify contrast and hue.

• Graphic Abstraction and Surrealism: The imagery focuses on Turner's signature style: treating color not merely as a descriptive detail, but as a primary graphic and emotional element. Famous plates—such as his silhouette of a giraffe against a blazing, manipulated red sky—illustrate his ability to transform ordinary landscapes into surreal, high-contrast visual events.

• The Intersection of Art and Commerce: The catalog addresses Turner's unique position in 20th-century visual culture. Unconcerned with the rigid division between commercial art and fine art, Turner's saturated imagery seamlessly crossed over from Madison Avenue advertisements and legendary jazz album covers into the permanent collections of major fine-art museums.

• The Digital Transition: The text examines Turner's later embrace of digital technology. For the accompanying exhibition, Turner personally printed his classic images utilizing modern pigment-based inkjet technology, noting that digital printing finally gave him the precise, fluid control over tone and hyper-saturation that he had spent his entire analog career chasing.

Significance

Pete Turner: Empowered by Color serves as a concise yet vital retrospective record of an artist who helped legitimize color photography as an independent art form. By showcasing his historic bravado with color alongside his late-career digital prints, the catalog acts as a bridge between the mid-century era of commercial illustration and the modern era of digital fine-art photography.