Faces and Places features photos from 40 countries

VAIL — Peter Behrendt has been everywhere and photographed everything, so Faces and Places is an apt title for his photo show. Behrendt’s show consists of 65 images, some large photos printed on canvas, as well as many prints.

“It’s an eclectic collection,” he said. “It’s a combination of landscapes, animals, portraits. It’s a wide-ranging collection.”

He asks people to vote for their favorite image during the show. There’s a drawing at the end, and the winner gets a print. So far, there are 50 different favorites.

Faces and Places reflects a life spent traveling the globe with a camera in his hand and represents more than 40 countries where they were taken. He uses no particular brand of camera. He works with the one he has handy.

“I give a lot of talks about photography, and the opening line is always that I find it very difficult to get a good picture when I don’t have a camera,” he said.

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It’s a tool, and about any good gear will work if it’s in the right hands.

“There are probably 500 cameras capable of taking really good pictures,” he said. “I’m asked invariably what kind of camera I use, and I find that amusing.”

Luck plays a large part, and so does skill.

“Most of it is being in the right place at the right time. You have to be able to get the light correct, and some basic skills, but most of it is having a good eye.”

‘PAINTERLY’

His dad was a good oil painter, and while he can’t paint he said he inherited his father’s gift for color and composition.

“Photography is the only art form for me,” he said. “Many of my pictures are what I call ‘painterly.’ People say ‘That’s a painting, not a photograph. Yes, that’s a photograph.”

He started when he was in high school and college in the 1950s, when he worked every weekend in Henry’s Camera in Los Angeles. He graduated from high school in 1956 and had already began photography. These days, Behrendt and his family live here most of the time, and have for decades. He was an executive in the tech industry and retired at 48 from IBM.

He launched a computer storage company in Boulder and ran that for 13 years. He no longer runs that company, but he’s on a few boards around the world, and he still travels and lectures extensively.

“The purpose is to share photography with the Vail community. If someone has an irresistible urge to acquire one, I’ll make that happen,” he said.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.