The Artist

Peter Steinhauer was born two weeks after his father left to serve as a physician in the war in Vietnam. His father’s absence and subsequent stories had a strong impact on his childhood. Later in his life Steinhauer decided that he would have to go to Vietnam himself to fully understand his father’s life and experiences.

The artist arrived in Hanoi in 1993 and during this time he delicately immersed himself in Vietnamese life and traditions while producing a poetic book of photography which can only be described as deeply human. Steinhauer’s early photographs are shot on a large format camera, a process which is painstaking but produces images of the absolute finest quality. There are no accidental shots as each of Steinhauer’s images must be meticulously metered and composed. This first monograph, Vietnam: Portraits and Landscapes, was published by Edition Stemmle in 2002. Intuitive and highly sensitive to subtle nuance, the artist captured the essence of the soul of the everyday life and landscape of a country at once so familiar and yet so foreign.

Steinhauer’s 2nd monograph, Enduring Spirit of Vietnam, published by Art Vietnam Gallery Hanoi, Vietnam and Fielding Lecht Gallery, Austin Texas, was awarded Best Photography Book of the Year 2007 by PDN – Photo District News. Cocoons, his third monograph published by Powerhouse Books in 2019, is a multiyear collection of images of the haunting beauty of the bamboo scaffolding draped in brightly colored fabric that emerges from the Hong Kong cityscape in its otherworldly grandeur.

After ten years of living in Vietnam, the artist lived and worked in Hong Kong and Singapore before returning to the USA. His work currently focuses on architecture within urban landscapes, manmade structures, and exotic marketplaces all over the world. The artist continues to exhibit widely within the US and internationally.

His prints are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Washington D.C., The Hong Kong Heritage Museum, and numerous private and corporate collections worldwide. He is the recipient of numerous international photography awards including a finalist for the 2014 Lucie Awards, Ford Foundation grant for his multi-year work in Vietnam, Black and White Spider Award for Architecture, IPA and PX3 Paris awards, three Communication Arts Photography Annual Award of Excellence awards, among others.

The artist currently lives in Washington D.C. with his Vietnamese wife and three children. In 2022 he and his wife Erin Pham founded the Vietnam Society, a foundation dedicated to promoting the culture of Vietnam and fostering relationships with cultures worldwide.