Peter
Beard

Peter Beard (1938–2020) was an American artist, photographer, and diarist whose work documented the vanishing wilderness of Africa with a raw, poetic intensity. A Harvard-educated adventurer, Beard spent decades in Kenya, producing photographs of extraordinary beauty and urgency that chronicled the destruction of the natural world alongside portraits of the artists, models, and celebrities who populated his extraordinary life.

Beard's diaries — densely layered with photographs, drawings, pressed insects, and handwritten text — are considered among the most original works of art of the 20th century. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, and major private collections worldwide.