Markus Akira Peters is an artist based on the Long Island Sound in New York, where he lives with his wife and two children. His photographic work moves fluidly between film and digital processes, often beginning with rediscovered negatives from earlier years and evolving through a hybrid analog-digital workflow. The result is an ongoing dialogue between memory, material, and modern image-making.

Born in 1970 in New York City to German and Japanese parents, Markus grew up surrounded by his father’s collection of paintings, photographs, and art books—a quiet but lasting education that rooted his lifelong interest in images

His pictures—quiet, observational, and grounded in light and atmosphere—reflect the influence of photographers Dorothea Lange, August Sander, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, as well as painters Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, and Sesshū Tōyō.

He earned degrees in visual arts and sociology from Colgate University before studying filmmaking through New York University’s continuing education program. He built a career in documentary film, collaborating with Albert Maysles, Nina Rosenblum, Hava Kohav Beller, and Bob Balaban, among others. His years in filmmaking continue to shape the quality of his pictures today.

He invites you to return to this site as his work continues to evolve, connecting the tactile past of film with the possibilities of the present.