Peter A. Southwick of Arlington, Massachusetts, died peacefully on Sept. 15, 2025, at the age of 74.

An award-winning photojournalist, Peter was a beloved husband, father, friend, teacher, and Red Sox fan. Happiest with a camera or golf club in his hand, or using his voice to sing or teach, Peter always wanted to be close to the story, but never the center of attention. Being a photojournalist, he said, was like “getting a front-row ticket to the greatest show on earth.” 

Peter was born in 1951 in Washington, D.C., the second of Paul and Sue Southwick’s three children. He took after his maternal grandfather, Werner Heider, a German scholar, poet, and music lover with a gentle manner and habit of not accepting things uncritically. 

Peter attended the Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, where he enjoyed playing sports and performing in plays and with the school’s a cappella group, the Clef Dwellers. He maintained a lifelong love for music, from singing in the choir at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, to taking up guitar lessons in his 60s, to supporting the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 

Peter’s father, a former Navy photographer, introduced him to a darkroom and printing photos when he was 9 years old. He got his first camera at 13, unlocking a passion that would shape his career and entire adult life.  

He moved to Massachusetts to attend Harvard College, where he earned a BA in Government but spent much of his free time taking photographs for the university’s daily newspaper, the Harvard Crimson. He lived in the Boston area for the rest of his life, changing his allegiances from the Washington Senators to the Red Sox and eventually even becoming a Patriots fan. 

Over a career spanning three decades, Peter produced images that appeared in publications around the world. His first professional journalism gig was with The Real Paper, an alternative weekly in Cambridge. Peter joined the photography staff of the Boston Herald American in 1978, and covered stories like the visit of Pope John Paul II, the parade of Tall Ships, and the 1980 presidential campaign. Beginning in 1980, he spent 10 years as a staff photographer in the Boston bureau of the Associated Press, where he traveled extensively within the US and covered everything from World Series and Super Bowls to political conventions and presidential inaugurations. Peter moved back to newspaper work in 1990 as photo editor of the Boston Globe and after two years was promoted to the Globe’s Director of Photography, leading the newspaper’s staff of visual journalists to tell the stories that mattered to readers in Boston and beyond. In 2002 he joined the faculty at Boston University’s College of Communication, where he taught photojournalism until he retired in 2017.

As a freelance photographer, his work appeared in Newsweek, Time, and a wide variety of periodicals and books. His work was recognized by regional and national organizations, including a National Headliner Award for his 1987 feature “Trying to Save the Whales,” the Boston Press Photographers Association (1988), and the National Press Photographers’ Association’s John Long Ethics Award (2020). 

Peter treasured his role as a teacher, offering his students disciplined instruction alongside warm, supportive mentorship. One of the highlights of his career was participating as a photojournalism judge for the William Randolph Hearst College Journalism Awards Program from 1997-2000. 

In a 2017 interview for BU’s College of Communication magazine, he said, “I spent a lot of time teaching my students that the most important thing about doing photojournalism is never to forget that this is for an audience. If you do it for yourself, you will not do as good work. This is all about reaching other people and allowing them to share the experiences that you were privileged to have with the camera in your hand.”  

Beyond the camera, Peter’s greatest joy in life was his family. He cherished spending time, traveling, and enjoying music with his wife of 43 years, Jean Rosenberg, their daughter Natalie and son Lindsay. He was an avid golfer and was happiest at the family’s home in Boothbay, Maine, where he spent hours kayaking on the river and enjoying the natural beauty of the Maine coast. His connection to the Boothbay region grew even stronger later in his life. In 2014, he produced “Route 27 South,” a multimedia project featuring photographs and recorded voices of residents of the peninsula, and he photographed performances at the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor until the final months of his life.

Peter is also survived by his brother Tom Southwick (Christena Southwick), sister Linda Hedio (Stefan Hedio), relatives Jim Chapman, Barbara Meyer, Bob Rosenberg, Ann Walsh, Jan K. Rosenberg, and numerous nephews and nieces and their children. Peter’s family is grateful to his oncology team and the medical staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Care Dimensions Hospice, and First Parish Ministers and community for all the care they provided. 

A Celebration of Life will be held at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church,  630 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA, on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m., followed by a reception.

Donations in Peter’s memory may be made to The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor, P.O. Box 800, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538, or First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Arlington, MA 02476.