ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
A native of Switzerland, Peter Schreyer is an internationally exhibited, award-winning photographer who has documented America’s cultural landscape for over four decades. He has received a wide range of public art commissions, research grants, and recognition awards, including a Visual Arts Fellowship from the State of Florida, for his black-and-white photography on Florida, often paying tribute to its marginalized communities.
In 2005-2006, Schreyer was honored with a major retrospective entitled Small Stories from A Big Country at the Swiss Camera Museum in Vevey, Switzerland. In 2015, following his solo exhibition Returning Home at the Rollins Museum of Art in Winter Park, a collection of his Central Florida archival photographs was purchased for the museum’s prestigious Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art. His work is on permanent display in many Florida public art collections, including the cities of Winter Park, Orlando, Winter Garden, the counties of Volusia and Orange, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Valencia State College.
Schreyer served as the Executive Director of Crealdé School of Art from 1995 through 2024 and in 2007, led the founding of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, a cultural center that honors the Winter Park’s historic African American community. He also held the position of Photography Program Manager and Senior Faculty Member at Crealdé School of Art for many years, leading master class documentary photography projects, including The Las Vegas Project: Contemporary Life on the Historic Santa Fe Trail in 2021, which will be permanently installed in Las Vegas, New Mexico in the fall of 2026. He is committed to the traditional film process, both in his own photography and in teaching all levels of silver-based photographic and darkroom techniques. His diverse teaching experience includes working with teens from underserved communities, conducting photographic tours throughout North America and Europe, and being a visiting teaching artist at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee.
In the spring of 2025, Peter and his wife Betsy fulfilled a long-time dream and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he continues to work as a documentary photographer and educator. He currently is an instructor in film photography in the Continuing Education Program at Santa Fe Community College and conducts private lessons and photographic tours in the American West and Switzerland.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 - Winter Garden Americana: A Look Back, exhibition of 24 archival prints and oral histories from the City of Winter Garden’s permanent collection, depicting people and places between 1982 and 2017, as a tribute to America at 250
2025 - Small Stories from a Big Country, 50 images and oral histories covering four decades in the United States and Switzerland, Alice & William Jenkins Gallery, Crealde School of Art, Winter Park, Florida
2025 - The Sage Project Phase III: Hannibal Square Elders Tell Their Stories, eight archival portraits, with oral histories by Fairolyn Livingston and Mary Daniels, Hannibal Square Heritage Center, Winter Park, Florida
2024 - Hannibal Square in the Mid-1990s: New Additions to the Permanent Collection, Hannibal Square Heritage Center, Winter Park, Florida
2019 - The Sage Project Phase II: Hannibal Square Elders Tell Their Stories, with 15 archival portraits, with oral histories by Fairolyn Livingston and Mary Daniels, Hannibal Square Heritage Center, Winter Park, Florida
2019 - A Proud Heritage: Documenting Winter Garden’s Historic African American Community, Art in Public Places Gallery, City Hall, Winter Garden, Florida
2018 - Florida in Black & White, a solo exhibition with Peter Schreyer and Storytellers XVII Teen Photographers from New Smyrna Beach’s historic African American community, Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach, Florida
2017 - From Switzerland to Florida – Documentary Photography by Peter Schreyer, Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida
2015 - Peter Schreyer: Returning Home, Cornell Museum Fine Art, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
2013 - Peter Schreyer: Three Decades of Documenting Florida, Casa Feliz House Museum, Winter Park, Florida
2012 - The Sage Project Phase I: Hannibal Square Elders Tell Their Stories, with 17 archival portraits, with oral histories by Fairolyn Livingston and Mary Daniels, Hannibal Square Heritage Center, Winter Park, Florida
2010 - The Lost Decades: Winter Garden in the 1980s and 90s, Art in Public Places Gallery, City Hall, Winter Garden, Florida, purchase for public art collection
2009 - Winter Garden Then and Now, Winter Garden Heritage Foundation Gallery at the Historic Edgewater Hotel, Winter Garden, Florida (public art commission)
2007/08 - Trailer City: Portrait of a Community, Winter Garden Heritage Foundation Gallery at the Historic Edgewater Hotel, Winter Garden, Florida, the Orange County Regional History Center and SNAP! Orlando, Florida
2004/05 - Small Stories From A Big Country, a twenty-year, 85-piece retrospective exhibition, Musee d’Appareil Photographique, Vevey, Switzerland
1997 - Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, Virginia
1994 - Winter Park’s Westside: A Living History of Places and People, Central Florida traveling exhibition shown at historical museums, libraries, and community centers
1993 - Florida’s Lingering Past: A Change of Character, Harris House, Atlantic Center of the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
1988 - A Decade in America, Crealdé Fine Arts Gallery, Winter Park, Florida
1985 - Photo-Forum Gallery, Biel-Bienne, Switzerland
1985 - Catskill Center for Photography, Woodstock, New York
1982 - American Landscapes, Berner Photo-Galerie, Bern, Switzerland
1982 - Eatonville Documentary. Focus Gallery. Winter Park, Florida
SELECTED COLLABORATIONS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Since 1980, over 100 juried and invitational, gallery, and museum exhibitions in local, regional, and national locations.
2022-2024 - The Las Vegas Project: Contemporary Life on the Historic Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico, extensive travelling exhibition of 52 archival photographs and oral histories with 10 master class students, Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park, Florida, New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico and Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2017-2022 - The Lake: A Documentary Exploring the Land and People of Lake Apopka, a Central Florida traveling exhibition featuring work by Schreyer and Crealdé documentary master class students, along with plein-air paintings by some of Florida’s top painters, exhibited at Winter Garden Heritage Museum, Crealdé School of Art, Orange County Regional History Center. In 2024, this exhibition became a permanent installation in the Commission Chamber of Winter Garden City Hall.
2017 - In the Eyes of the Hungry: Florida’s Changing Landscape, an NEA funded group exhibition and tribute to John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, University of Central Florida and Terrace Gallery, Orlando City Hall
2016 - St. Augustine at 450, an official City of St. Augustine documentary project, master class and exhibition, for the 450th anniversary of America’s oldest city, Rotunda Gallery, St. Johns County Administration Building, St. Augustine, Florida
2005/2008 - Where Two Roads Meet (two-person exhibition with Rick Lang), exhibited at the Museum of Florida Art and Culture, South Florida Community College, Avon Park, Florida and at The Art Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
2000 - 2000 National Photography Competition, juried by Barbara Head Millstein, Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum of Art at Soho Photo Gallery, New York
1997 - Florida in Black and White, Highlands Museum of Art, Sebring, Florida
1997 - We the People...of Orange County, two-person art commission with Rick Lang to produce 60 environmental portraits for the grand-opening of the new Orange County Courthouse, Orlando, Florida
1990 - Four Photographers View the Landscape, Santa Fe Center for Photography, New Mexico
1988 - Eight Florida Photographers, invitational exhibition curated by Thomas Peterson, Cornell Fine Arts Center, Winter Park, Florida
1985 - New Developments in Contemporary American Photography, Louis K Meisel Gallery, New York
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS AND PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, Florida
Valencia State College, Orlando, Florida
Public Art Collection, City of Winter Garden, Florida
Orange County Regional History Center, Orlando, Florida
Volusia County Courthouse, DeLand, Florida
Albin Polasek Museum, Winter Park, Florida
Mary S. Harrell Black Heritage Museum, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Public Art Collection, City Hall, Orlando, Florida
Public Art Collection, City of Biel-Bienne, Switzerland
Maxey Community Center, Winter Garden, Florida
United Arts of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
Swiss Camera Museum, Vevey, Switzerland
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2026 to Present -Faculty for film-based and documentary photography, Continuing Education Program, Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2017 to 2020 - Visiting Professor, film-based photography, Valencia State College, Orlando, Florida
1980 to 2026 - Senior Faculty, Photography, Crealdé School of Art, Winter Park, Florida
2003 - Visiting Artist, Penland School for Arts and Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
2000 - Visiting Artist, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gattlinburg, Tennesee.
1998 to 1999 - Project Co-Director and Lead Instructor, The Last Harvest: A Tribute to the Life and Work of the Farmworkers on Lake Apopka, statewide traveling exhibition funded by the Florida Humanities Council, Apopka, Florida
1992 to 1994 - Project Director and Lead Instructor, Farmworker: A Photographic Documentary, a collaboration between Crealdé School of Art and the Florida Farmworker Association
1989 to 1994 - Photography Instructor, Elderhostel, various Central Florida locations
1986 to 1988 - Adjunct Instructor in Photography, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
1980 to 1984 - Photography Instructor, Valencia Community College, Orlando, Florida
1981 - Photography Instructor, Upward Bound Program at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
1980 to 1981 - Photography Instructor, Youth Arts Training Program, Council of Arts and Sciences, Orlando, Florida
SELECTED GRANTS, COMMISSIONS AND AWARDS
2016 Diversity & Inclusion Award, State of Florida, Division of Cultural Affairs
2010 Neighborhood Hero Award from Bank of America for overall documentary work, teaching in underserved communities, and for the establishment of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center
2009 Educator of Year Award from United Arts of Central Florida
2005 United Arts of Central Florida Professional Development Grant to fund photo-documentary project on Trailer City, a 70-year-old mobile home park in Winter Garden, Florida
2003 United Arts of Central Florida Professional Development Grant to fund preparation and travel expenses for retrospective exhibition in Switzerland
2001 Public art commission for new Volusia County Courthouse for a series of environmental portraits and oral histories of long-time residents, DeLand, Florida
1994 Awarded the Winter Park Library and Rollins College Rhea Marsh/Dorothy Lockhart-Smith Winter Park Research Grant to photograph historical and cultural aspects of Winter Park’s African-American community
1993/94 Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Visual Arts, State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs
1988 Awarded a work/study artist’s grant from the Cultural Department of the city of Biel-Bienne, Switzerland
