About Peggy

Over a career of 40 years Peggy Peattie has been dedicated to visual storytelling, amplifying the voices of traditionally marginalized communities, documenting the definitive moments that reveal our shared humanity.

She earned her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego, developing visual critical ethnography as a research method - using visual storytelling to inform designing solutions-based approaches to homelessness. She earned her Master’s Degree from Ohio University’s VISCOM program and her BA degree from the University of Washington. teaches photojournalism at San Diego State, digital journalism at SD City College, and other classes at USD and UCSD extension.

After ten years as a photographer and writer in L.A., primarily for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, she joined the staff at The State in South Carolina where she was inspired to document the racial tension surrounding the confederate flag. Her work earned a grant from the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Cultural Understanding, which allowed her to complete a body of work just as the resistance movement was getting fired up, producing the book Down in Dixie. She joined the San Diego Union-Tribune to concentrate on border stories, culture and crime in Mexico, local sports, the homeless community, as well as other issues of social and environmental justice. Currently she is an independent photojournalist, providing a space for San Diego’s unhoused cmomunity to share their stories at www.TalesoftheStreet.com, and teaching visual journalism to the next generation of storytellers.

She has been regular faculty at Missouri Photo Workshop, Mountain People's Workshop, the Honoring Ida Workshop and the International Photojournalism Workshops in Bulgaria and Hungary. Peattie has won numerous awards in the POYi and NPPA contests, winning Photographer of the Year for Region 10, and Greater LA POY six times, Southern Photographer of the year, POY at the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and has been keynote speaker at several journalism conferences. She was the winner of the first Alexia Foundation professional grant, and numerous Knight Fellowships. She has served as judge for College POY, professional POYi, Best of Photojournalism and the Alexia Foundation grant.

Peattie can usually be found kayaking or canoeing on the ocean, hiking, or photographing the local wildlife.