Peter Beard, a wildlife photographer who chronicled Africa with his shots, has died in New York. He suffered from dementia and passed away last month: his body was found in the woods near his home in Montauk, Long Island. The cause of death is not yet known.
He was born in New York in 38. He began taking photographs and writing diaries during his adolescence. In 1957 he entered Yale University to study Art History. His life has been marked by travel. Having fallen in love with Africa, which he visited for the first time at 17, he settled there for a while.
He worked for Tsavo National Park, where his photographs documented the endangered status of 35.000 elephants and other wild animals, which later became the subject of his first book, The End of the Game (1965).
Beard used to accompany his photographs with writings taken from his daily diary, a practice that became a stylistic feature.
His diaries contain newspaper clippings, dry leaves, old photographs, drawings: his photographic works can in fact be considered collages, in which the artist's thoughts, emotions and experiences converge.
Article published on 21 April 2020 - 17:19
