Peter Jake Williams

The Modernist Magazine

Published in issue No. 52 of The Modernist, a visual essay entitled ‘Landscapes of Atomic Optimism’ examines three projects by Dame Sylvia Crowe for the Central Electricity Generating Board.

I have been visiting and photographing the three sites for approximately three years, which has led me to embark on a Phd at the University of Liverpool.

Check out The Modernist to get your copy or head over to the project’s website at Landscapes of Atomic Optimism.

I would like to thank the team at The Modernist for agreeing to publish the essay and images.

Royal Photographic Society IPE 166 Shortlist

I was truly honoured to have this photograph shortlisted as part of the International Photography Exhibition 166 Royal Photographic Society.

The photograph was taken last November while I was walking through the Chelsea Flea one morning. The days of Vivian Maier are long gone, when everyone was engaged with the street in some way.

Today, everyone seems engrossed in their phone, and it’s a challenge in street photography to capture people who aren’t absorbed in their own black mirror. Even here, as this stunning young person tried on vintage coats, looking statuesque and beautiful with the sunlight reflecting off them from a warehouse window across the lot, they were keenly aware of the person next to them on a phone. They struck a pose for the onlooker – a fellow tourist capturing a slice of NYC life on one balmy autumn morning.

The shortlist featured work from 237 photographers across 35 countries, with over 8,000 images submitted.

Number Station G03 / Zahlensender G03

This photograph has been selected for exhibition at the Summer Exhibition 2024 at the Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London, from 18 June to 18 August.

The photograph is part of a project documenting the social and propaganda infrastructure of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The ongoing project is titled ‘Zahlensender-Rundfunk’.

This photograph captures the first prototype shortwave rotational transmitter, built in 1964 by the GDR and located at Dechtower Dyke. It was in operation until the end of the Cold War, with its last transmission on 9 May 1990.

Alameda Point Liminality

I am honoured that this photo, taken earlier in 2024 at Alameda Point, California, will be on exhibition from 26 April to 5 May at Gareth Gardner Gallery in Deptford, as part of a digital presentation at the centre of the gallery.