“Born in Massachusetts, I was an only child, raised in New York, and moved to Los Angeles in my early 20s. I taught myself to use a camera while working at Fred Segal in Hollywood, where I started shooting headshots for my actor/model coworkers just to make some extra money (well, after the encouragement of an actor named Larry… Lost track of him, but if you ever read this Larry, I’d LOVE to thank you!). I fell in love with shooting, and my career as a photographer was born.
Growing up, I was always the silly one in our family pics, making some weird face while everyone else was smiling. I loved creating surprises and funny, special memories. I think this is the essence of what actually shaped my shooting style. It has always been important to me to have a subject walk away from a shoot saying, ‘Wow, that was fun!’ The photos are just the proof. I have been incredibly lucky to have been supported by so many totally awesome, talented, fun crew members by my side. I appreciate and love them all for their hard work, commitment and especially their willingness to encourage some of my more reluctant subjects to just go along with some of my really silly, sometimes downright stupid ideas. My crew has always been an essential ingredient to the surprising success of many a dumb idea.
Included throughout this ‘Meet Peggy’ section are pictures of many of my partners in crime. We have traveled the world and weathered some hilarious, stressful, anxious, boring, sweaty, frozen, adventurous, and unforgettable experiences together, and I am grateful for them all!
My career has been a large part of my life, but the biggest and BEST part has been raising my kids. Between being a working mom while raising my two girls and three boys, believe me, there is never a dull moment! The photo assignment that I am most proud of is the documenting of my kids’ lives. It always brings me so much happiness, but often annoys the kids😝.”
❤️PS
As one of the pioneers of “Lifestyle Photography”, Sirota is known for her heartfelt, emotional, evocative, slice-of-life imagery, always revealing something unexpected and exceptional from her subjects, young and old.
Peggy has photographed some of the most famous personalities, and her portraits have landed on the covers and pages of GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Variety, Interview, British Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, New York Magazine, ESPN, Numéro Homme, Vogue Bambini, and many more.
She has directed commercials and photographed campaigns for Apple, Nike, L’Oreal, Volvo, Amazon, Netflix, Mercedes, Disney, Sony, Levi’s, NBCUniversal, MasterCard, Microsoft, CoverGirl, Verizon, Warner Bros., Discovery, Olay, The Coca-Cola Company, MLB, Anthem Blue Cross, GAP, Roxy, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, Motorola, Dove, Virgin, Glossier, NFL, Barney’s, Patek Philippe, Zegna, and Toyota, amongst many others, including the widely celebrated Banana Republic and Clinique Happy spots.
Sirota’s photo series GUESS WHO? is an interactive book of celebrity-in-disguise portraits, published in Germany by Steidl. Peggy challenges the reader to decipher the identity of her subjects, with all profits going to AIDS Project LA… #2 is in the works!
JIM MOORE, GQ Creative Director:
“She does something rare in photography that’s hard to do which is Joy. In fashion photography, there’s an idea that it’s maybe not cool, but she makes it cool. She likes it to be an odd moment, push buttons in people and find their inner child.”
“She has a very strong ability to be in the moment. She’s very communicative and talks to people. If there’s a problem or someone doesn’t want to wear something, she’ll get involved and explain what she wants. She’s very verbal and not afraid to get shot down.”
DREW BARRYMORE, Actress:
“I think Peggy has this magical magnet inside her.
A lot of people play music, put you in a studio, tell you to ‘please smile, dance, jump up and down’, but there’s something different about her, about who she is as a human being. If that’s her intention, she actually magnetically pulls it out of people in an authentic way.”
“There’s an energy in her photographs that’s different than any other photographer.”
“She is really soulful, funky, and spirited… she’s cool. She doesn’t have crazy energy, she has cool energy, but it never loses its playfulness.”
WADE BRANDS, PS’ Lighting Director:
“I think even to this day, I’m on set and always impressed, amazed at what she ends up doing. You’d think that after all this time I’d kind of know how she does it but I still say every time, ‘How did she come up with that?’ in the back of my mind. I’m constantly impressed by her creative process.”
“She doesn’t ask people to do things, she wants them to give her a piece of themselves. She wants to see the real emotion in any subject, whether it is a model, actor, or athlete. She never wants them to be something they’re not. She’s always struggling to get them to just be themselves, which is why I think her sensibility is so fresh. She’s not trying to have them pose a certain way, or have a certain look or style. She wants them to have a natural thing coming out of them. She’s always looking for that happiness or that joy.”
“It’s almost like photography is just a means to the end. The end for her is seeing the emotion in people and then being able to express that to the audience. She kind of goes blindly forward, very confident of that vision.”
