Bio

Ira Peppercorn is an award winning photographer and an expert in international development, specializing in improving people's lives through housing and finance. The former Deputy Federal Housing Commissioner of the United States under President Bill Clinton, Ira Peppercorn works internationally on housing and finance, post disaster and post conflict shelter, poverty alleviation and slum upgrading.  Of the 68 countries Ira has been to, his assignments have included Iraq during the war, New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and post-disaster Haiti. His expertise in mortgage finance led to engagements as diverse as PBS' Nightly Business Report, World Bank sponsored conferences in Indonesia and India and keynoting the European Mortgage Federation's annual conference.  

Ira uses his photography as a complement to his development work, as a way to show how people live, work, love, pray and sometimes just survive. Ira's recent work includes slums in Bangladesh, small rural communities high in the Andes in Peru, and Temple ceremonies in rural Bali. Ira's images show deep intimacy with his subjects, whether it is a child in the doorway of a tiny house, medical workers visiting their clients, or a neighborhood recovering from a natural disaster. The vibrancy of his colors, the close in capture of lines on the face of an elderly woman and the crystal clarity of Ira's images capture the spirit of those he is photographic. Ira Peppercorn's photograph, Angel of Katrina, taken while he as the Senior Advisor to the American Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina, was runner-up in the Smithsonian International Photography Contest. You can find his work in galleries, business headquarters, and embassies, as well in publications from organizations, such as the World Bank. 

Ira Peppercorn holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from Yale University.  He is the proud companion of Nutmeg, a wonderful Golden Retriever.