Peto worked overseas on Save the Children Fund assignments, capturing the poverty and hardships of what was known then as ‘third world countries’. This photograph from 1967, taken in Kerala, is one of many featured in the Peto Collection from his time overseas with Save the Children. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Kerala, India, 1967
Peto’s passion for photographing the ordinary often led him to capturing the more eccentric aspects of British life – and this capture of a group nuns sleeping in deckchairs from the ’60s is a quintessential example. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and ‘60s. His collection is a chronicle of an…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Nuns on Deckchairs, 1960s
Peto regularly visited Dundee, photographing the city’s streets and people. ‘Foggy Day’ was taken at Whorterbank, Lochee, features one of the women wearing the famous jute ‘baffies’ and won a European award in 1960. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and ‘60s. His collection is a chronicle of an age –…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – A Foggy Day in Dundee
This vibrant picture, taken in June 1959, was one of a series Peto photographed for the ‘Observer’ which did a feature of Spanish life under Franco’s regime. In the 1950s Franco implemented some reforms of Spain’s isolationist self-sufficiency policies which led to massive economic growth and a move away from its totalitarian repressive regime. Photo-journalist…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Barcelona Streetlife, June 1959
Peto captured the Beatles filming and recording their second feature HELP in 1965! One of the film’s most iconic scenes is the Beatles playing on Salisbury Plain, protected by the Army from the cult who want to sacrifice Ringo. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and ‘60s. His collection is a…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – The Beatles playing on Salisbury Plain, May 1965
Peto excelled at capturing the world of ballet, particularly the relationship between Nureyev and Fonteyn the two most iconic dancers of the period as this image from 1963 shows. He not only photographed productions, but also rehearsals like this one for ‘Marguerite and Armand’. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, 1963
Jazz trumpeteer ‘Satchmo’ was just one musician Peto photographed during his career, often capturing them before or just after a performance, as with this one taken in 1956 at the Empress Ballroom, London. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and ‘60s. His collection is a chronicle of an age – a spirited…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, 1956
Murdoch was one of many figures of literature photographed by Peto. Murdoch was a Fellow of Philosophy at Oxford University when this portrait was taken in 1962 for a profile in the The Observer Weekend Review. Photo-journalist Michael Peto worked with The Observer during the 1950s and ‘60s. His collection is a chronicle of an…Continue Reading The Peto Collection – Writer Iris Murdoch