Peter Philip Carroll (American, b. 1987) is a Michigan-based photographer and academic. His practice uses the medium of photography to explore patterns of inequality and injustice in society. Peter’s photographic work is informed by his professional training as a social scientist. He draws from this background an interest in the deliberate representation of underlying social ills that are reflected in our shared visual space. As such, his aesthetic sensibility is influenced by the straight photography movement and his work in general is inspired by photographers who have invited reflection on serious social issues through careful aesthetic decisions and well-considered attention to social problems, especially the work of Dorothea Lange, Dawoud Bey, Zoe Leonard, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Donavon Smallwood. Photography is not a neutral practice; it can reinforce power structures just as it can subvert them. Peter’s approach is to use the medium to underscore and invite reflection on the disquieting disparities of our time.
Peter has shown work at the juried 51st Annual Photography Exhibit at the Scarab Club in Detroit, Michigan and at a student art exhibit at GalleryDAAS in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In addition to two recent self-published zines, he has also had work published in the Agora Journal of Urban Planning and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
