Photographer Spotlight, Peter Vincent
Art In Motion 

​After diving into the mind of Peter Vincent, it's obvious why his work feels incredibly pure and executed with precision. Especially in the realm of automotive photography. His bold use of tonality and form leaves his work in a league of its own.     

Vincent has over 20-years of experience photographing machines at Bonneville.

​As a distinguished American photographer, photojournalist, and author, Peter captures imagery with a diverse background in fine art, landscapes, and editorial photography. Beginning his career around the early ‘70s, Vincent has built an expansive body of work that blends his own artistic influence with automotive subculture, landscapes, and popular culture. 

​Growing up in Palo Alto, CA he was regularly submerged in California car culture. Vincent often recalls one specific experience as a 5th-grader. While waiting near a street corner, a ‘49 Merc pulled up and stopped, it was chopped, lowered, noisy as hell, and it was unfinished with primer over the areas being reworked. He had instant goosebumps. That exact moment would make an impact on his work forever. 

To Vincent, the act of creation is one of the most interesting parts about making art. The appreciation for an unfinished hot rod is the epitome of that sentiment. 

“To me, the ultimate reality is a beautiful black and white photograph,”

Peter tells us. His experience and education have made an obvious impact on his perspective as a photographer. He received a degree in Architecture from Idaho State University, and later, his MFA in Photography. He took printmaking workshops with Ansel Adams, mentored with abstract photographers, Brett Weston, Morley Baer, and many others. Later, Vincent built upon his foundation by teaching photography at Sun Valley Center and other universities in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and continued working as a professional photographer.  

 “Bonneville is one of the greatest discoveries of my life,”

​Peter said. Vincent’s work studies formalism, abstraction, and minimalism. Which fundamentally adds a fascinating relevance to his work documenting hot rods, customs, and land speed cars especially in the Bonneville landscape.

As a passionate collector of art, Peter is a firm believer in books. “Books are a way of getting more “art” to people affordably,” he writes in his latest book, Rolling Bones. 

Vincent has successfully authored and published five book titles influenced by hot rods, culture, and the automobile. His latest title, Rolling Bones is an authentic look at the lives and creations that live on the salt flats - and it’s now available in our gift shop along with a variety of exclusive fine art Bonneville prints. ​The Museum of American Speed is honored to display various work in our Gallery for Automotive Art by Peter Vincent. ​