Peter Schlesinger is known for his published photographs of celebrities in art and fashion circles, such as Andy Warhol and Rex Reed in a taxi, Monaco, 1974 (1974); Robert Mapplethorpe on the Boulevard Saint-German, Paris, 1971 (1971); David Hockney and Cecil Beaton, Reddish House, 1970 (1970); and Vivienne Westwood’s shop on King’s Road, London, 1975 (1975).
Schlesinger is also known for his accompanying chatty writing and his decorative ceramic or stoneware sculptures, such as Queen Anne’s Lace (2020), Untitled (2018), Untitled Dots (2016), Three Trees (2011), and Grove (2010).
He is also known for his photographs of life in the Republic of Yemen just after a ferocious civil war. In 1976, his partner, photographer Eric Boman, was invited to go to Yemen for a fashion shoot and Schlesinger accompanied him as an assistant, but bringing his own camera as well. He documented the old traditional life in mountain landscapes, markets, villages, and ancient forts as it was disappearing. And now war has re-emerged once more, these rare images from the 1970s are of added interest, being recently presented at Marquee Projects in New York.
