BIOGRAPHY

Peter was educated in regional NSW and is a graduate of the University of New England, Armidale, NSW and Trinity College Speech and Drama, London.

Peter first worked as a photographer with various student newspapers and then, with the Martin Collins page on The Australian newspaper.

He became a teacher of Drama and English Literature in the NSW Education system. He joined Trinity Catholic College in Lismore, NSW as Head of Drama and Theatre and Senior English teacher and stayed 36 years!

Through all this he continued to pursue his passion for photography by taking images for newspapers, magazines, theatre productions, exhibitions, fashion shows, commercial commissions and doing private portrait/portfolio work.

He and his wife, Dr Ros Derrett, formed regional community theatre company, Theatre North Lismore in 1981. Its annual programs served the Far North Coast of NSW and beyond with high quality innovative theatre productions for over 20 years. All company promotional material through publicity, programs, posters and formal documentation of the rehearsals, workshops and productions work was undertaken by Peter. The comprehensive record includes the publication of two books on the company.

Dr Ros was honoured with an OAM in 1999 for her services to regional community cultural development and to tourism. Peter was awarded an OAM in 2007 for services to Drama education and regional theatre. [An OAM is an Australian Government honour – the Order of Australia Medal.}

Peter and Ros have spent many years travelling, researching theatre and tourism management and have lived for periods in Edinburgh, Venice and Bangkok. Peter’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries in Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Japan and Australia. His focus on theatre, landscapes and lifestyle images has helped document festivals, heritage buildings and travel experiences. Most recently his work was on show at The Channon Gallery and featured large-scale colour images of Venice.

He won a major award in 1998 as Australian Fine Art Photographer of the Year and was presented with a sponsored photographic trip to Britain.

For the past few years he has been working on a series of publications with Suzanne McCourt of Posh Dog Publishing.com in Melbourne and a new travel network for women established by Mandy Rowe: Broads Abroad Travel Network.