Peter Beard

PETER BEARD (New York, 1938-2020).
"S/t," 2001.
Photography, silver gelatin on Kodak glossy paper.
Measurements: 22.5 x 20.3 cm.
Photograph taken by Peter Beard at his Thunderbolt Ranch in Montauk of a model who appeared in the feature "Beyond Gauguin" for TRACE fashion magazine in 2001. Gift from the artist to a contributor to the feature.
Peter Beard was an American artist, photographer, chronicler and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journals that often integrated his photographs have been widely shown and published since the 1960s. Beard began writing journals as a child and taking photographs, as an extension of the journals, at the age of 12. A graduate of the Pomfret School, he entered Yale University in 1957, intending to pursue pre-med studies, but changed his major to art history. At Yale, he participated in the Scroll and Key secret society. His mentors at Yale included Josef Albers, Richard Lindner, and Vincent Scully. Beard graduated with a B.A. in 1961.Inspired by earlier trips to Africa in 1955 and 1960, Beard traveled to Kenya after graduating. Working in Tsavo National Park, he photographed and documented the disappearance of 35,000 elephants and other wildlife, which would later become the subject of his first book, The End of the Game. During this time, Beard acquired Hog Ranch, a property near the Ngong Hills adjacent to the coffee estate owned by Karen Blixen, which would become his lifelong base of operations in East Africa.Beard's first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery, New York City, in 1975 and throughout his career he has had landmark museum exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York City, in 1977, and at the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, in 1997. Gallery exhibitions followed in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna. Beard's work is included in private collections worldwide.