Peter Schreyer: Small Stories From A Big Country

Covering four decades, the Swiss American documentary photographers shares black and white images from his favorite Central Florida communities, his Swiss home town, beloved News Mexico and recent travels across America. All photographs were created with vintage film cameras; all are archival, silver gelatin prints, hand-made in his wet darkroom at Crealdé School of Art. Peter Schreyer is an internationally exhibited photographer who has documented America’s cultural landscape for over four decades. He has received a wide range of public art commissions, research grants and recognition awards, including a Visual Arts Fellowship from the State of Florida, for his black-and-white photography on Florida, which often pays tribute to its marginalized communities. In 2005-2006, Schreyer was honored with a major retrospective exhibition titled Small Stories From A Big Country at the Swiss Camera Museum in Vevey, Switzerland. In 2015, following his solo exhibition Returning Home at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, Winter Park, a collection of his Central Florida works was purchased for the museum’s prestigious Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art. His photographs are on permanent display in several local public art collections, including the cities of Winter Park, Orlando, Winter Garden, as well as Volusia and Orange counties. Peter Schreyer served as Crealdé’s long-time Executive Director from 1995-2024 and led the founding of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center in Winter Park in 2007. He continues to serve as the Photography Program Manager and as a Senior Faculty Member, leading master class documentary photography projects, including The Las Vegas Project: Contemporary Life on the Historic Santa Fe Trail, which is currently traveling in New Mexico. He is committed to the traditional film process, both in his own photography and in teaching all levels of silver-based photographic and darkroom techniques. The Showalter Hughes Community Gallery will feature highlights from Schreyer’s community- based teaching projects, including Storytellers and The Last Harvest.