• July 1, 2011
  • Photography
  • $34.95
  • Format: Hardbound/Case
  • ISBN-13: 9780981983585
  • Trim: 7in × 10in

The Blossoming of the World

Essays and Images

Brian Peterson

In The Blossoming of the World, Brian H. Peterson—author of the critically-acclaimed The Smile at the Heart of Things—picks up both pen and camera and journeys to the deep end of life. Along the way he confronts some painful contradictions—beauty and violence, love and grief—and reflects on illness, family, death, dreams, epiphanies, and the birth of self-awareness.

More storyteller than philosopher, Peterson struggles to reconcile his Christian faith with his love of science, creativity, and spirituality in all its manifestations. Through word and image he quietly looks for—and finds—the common ground that unites thinking and compassionate people of all shapes and sizes.

Full-color reproductions of Peterson's photographs accompany and enrich this collection of essays and reflections.

Brian H. Peterson, the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator at the James A Michener Art Museum in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has more than thirty years' experience as an artist, curator, critic, and arts administrator in the Philadelphia area. His scholarly publications include Pennsylvania Impressionism (2002), The Cities, the Towns, the Crowds: The Paintings of Robert Spencer (2004), and Form Radiating Life: The Paintings of Charles Rosen (2006), all copublished by the Michener Art Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Press. His recent memoir, The Smile at the Heart of Things: Essays and Life Stories (2010), was copublished by the Michener Art Museum and Tell Me Press.

Also a practicing photographer, Peterson has had more than thirty solo exhibitions at galleries and museums throughout the country since 1980. His work is in the collections of the Amon Cater Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Library of Congress, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.