How to Collect Like Brooke Shields—Actress Turned Collector
Peter Beard
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Peter Beard’s stirring photographs of African elephants, Black Rhinos, and an assortment of other exotic creatures began in the 1960s—a perfect union of his involvement with environmental activism and photography. He began taking photographs when he was twelve years old and was influenced by his art history education under Joseph Albers and Vincent Scully. He was compelled to move to Kenya after learning of the animal rights issues from Karen Blixen, buying a home there in 1964 after working at Tsavo National Park and documenting the assorted species falling victim to poachers and a surging human population. Beard’s images from Africa are often layered with handwritten text, blood, and airborne traces of drying his photographs outside. These mixed media elements factor into Beard’s collages and collaborations with contemporaries including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and Francis Bacon, among others. His portraits of celebrities, musicians, and models include diaristic tangents of text bubbles, doodles, hand-drawn frames, and added imagery from magazines. Beard strives to animate his frozen moments so they might embody the scenarios within which they were captured.
Beard has exhibited at Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, International Center of Photography, New York, Museum of Natural History, Madrid, KunstHausWien, Vienna, …
Peter Beard’s stirring photographs of African elephants, Black Rhinos, and an assortment of other exotic creatures began in the 1960s—a perfect union of his involvement with environmental activism and photography. He began taking photographs when he was twelve years old and was influenced by his art history education under Joseph Albers and Vincent Scully. He was compelled to move to Kenya after learning of the animal rights issues from Karen Blixen, buying a home there in 1964 after working at Tsavo National Park and documenting the assorted species falling victim to poachers and a surging human population. Beard’s images from Africa are often layered with handwritten text, blood, and airborne traces of drying his photographs outside. These mixed media elements factor into Beard’s collages and collaborations with contemporaries including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and Francis Bacon, among others. His portraits of celebrities, musicians, and models include diaristic tangents of text bubbles, doodles, hand-drawn frames, and added imagery from magazines. Beard strives to animate his frozen moments so they might embody the scenarios within which they were captured.
Beard has exhibited at Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, International Center of Photography, New York, Museum of Natural History, Madrid, KunstHausWien, Vienna, Commune di Milano Cultura e Musei, Milan, Paris Photo, FIAC, France, and Seibu Museum, Tokyo, among many others.
Hometown New York, New York
Lives and Works New York, NY, Montauk Point, New York and Kenya, Africa
Education
BFA, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1961
Works Available for Purchase
No works
