About PEEP

About PEEP:

Three Decades of Photo Learning and Sharing

Back in 1993, three local professional photographers, Steve Lama, Leland DeFord III and Chad Puerling sat down for lunch at the Italian Kitchen on Pershing with amateur photographer Tim Holt and ordered some Italian Sandwiches and the Italian sampler plate of pasta. At the end of that afternoon early dinner, they had hatched a plan to start a photography club in El Paso. They had to: They had a great acronym - PEEP (Photography Enthusiasts of El Paso which was conceived in Steve Lama's EPCC Continuing Ed Photo course). How could you not start a club with such a great acronym?

A few weeks later, 45 people crammed into the meeting room above Art’s Photographic on Montana Ave. for the very first meeting of PEEP. The group has been meeting pretty much monthly ever since. That’s at least 360 meetings. That’s literally thousands of El Pasoans that have been members. (Some stayed members for years, some left El Paso, some have passed away.) That’s a whole bunch of meeting places from Art’s to various public libraries, to museums, to restaurants, to the current El Paso Art Association building on Paisano.

At the time that PEEP was formed, El Paso had no photography club for hobbyists. The Sun City Photographers had disbanded in the early 80’s and the only “official” club was "Focus," which was exclusive, invitation-only for fine art photographers. PEEP filled a void that was years in the making for the photo hobbyist.

When PEEP was founded, all members shot with film. Some even had darkrooms. Today not too many members shoot film. Most, if not all, are digital shooters. Some shoot with expensive pro cameras, some with prosumer, some with point and shoot and some with smartphones. For PEEP, the camera is not important, the image is. (In the late 1990's, PEEP split into 2 groups the film group and Megapixels, the digital group. Later, the two clubs recombined back into the current PEEP.)

PEEP has had multiple shows over the years including 2008's Dos Mundos/Two Worlds at the old El Paso City Hall, 3 "Drive By Shootings," El Paso Foto Fiesta, collective group shows ("PEEPshows") that have been shown at various venues around town like Ruli's International Restaruant downtown, the EL Paso International Airport, as well as conducting public workshops. (Recently, PEEPshow '23 debuted at the El Paso International Airport.)

PEEP has also dipped it's toes into the world of video. So, if you are interested in video, PEEP is there for you too.

PEEP certainly didn’t set out to be more than just a hobbyist club. But over the years, it has grown to be the premier camera club in the El Paso area, matched only in longevity by the Dona Ana Photo Club (DAPC) in Las Cruces. Today, PEEP meets monthly, and is member of both the Photographic Society of America and the Gulf States Camera Club Council. Photographers from all over the southwest are members of PEEP, and many members stay in the club even after moving away. In fact, the PEEP newsletter is now also the temporary newsletter for the DAPC.

In 2023, PEEP celebrated it’s 30th anniversary in El Paso, the longest-lived and most established photography club in El Paso history. Steve, Chad, Lee and Tim are all still members, 31 years later along with about 125 other photo and video enthusiasts.

We would love to have you join them as well!

Past PEEP Presidents:

Tim Holt

Dan Patton

Jeanine Collins

David Sabal

Brent Clarke

Marco Milazzo

Renee Iglesias

Jerzy Molon

Tina Dwyer

John Hall