World-famous photographer, artist and infamous playboy
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Join MemoriesMemories Team Peter Beard was born into considerable wealth and privilege in New York in 1938. He was heir to a railroad fortune from his mother's family and a tobacco inheritance from his father's side. This is a photo of Peter and his brother, Anson. It was captured at Bayberry Point in 1943.
Memories Team Beard first visited Kenya upon his graduation from Yale in the 1950s and would return many times during his life. He had recalled swimming in crocodile-infested rivers and witnessing the death of people who did not make it out.
Memories Team Beard’s best-known work was his 1965 book “The End of the Game”. The book photographed and documented the demise of 35,000 elephants and other wildlife.
Memories Team Beard's work changed in the 1970s after he started combining photographs and text from his daily journals. He would also embellish his prints with related objects like dried leaves and insects. Beard later became famous for adding blood - sometimes animals, sometimes his own - to his work.
Memories Team Beard travelled across America with the Rolling Stones on their Exile on Main Street tour in 1972, with the photographer expanding his portfolio. He also photographed and collaborated with Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol
Memories Team Beard maintained homes in Manhattan and Montauk, and spent long periods in Africa. During one visit to Kenya in the mid-1970s, he spotted Iman and got her signed to a New York modelling agency, which would skyrocket her career.
Memories Team Beard had been married three times. His first was in 1967 to Minnie Cushing, the daughter from a distinguished family. They divorced three years later. He second marriage was to fashion model Cheryl Tiegs. It lasted from 1981 to 1984. Beard's third marriage was to Nejma Khanum, the daughter of an Afghan diplomat, in 1986. Together they have a daughter, Zara.
Memories Team In September 1996, Beard was charged by an elephant at the Kenya-Tanzania border. The elephant ran a tusk through his leg, broke Beard's ribs and fractured his pelvis in at least a half-dozen places. On his way to hospital in Nairobi, Beard almost died of his internal injuries. He was also told he might never walk again.
Memories Team In 2004, Beard published "Zara's Tales". It was a book of eleven stories told to his daughter from his tented encampment at Hog Ranch, Kenya.
Memories Team Beard's first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery, New York City, in 1975. Since then, he has had gallery exhibitions in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna. Beard's work is also included in private collections around the world.
Memories Team Beard had dementia and had experienced at least one stroke by 2020. On March 31, he disappeared from his family home and the authorities conducted an extensive search for him without luck.
Memories Team Beard was found dead in the woods, almost three weeks after he disappeared from his home. He was 82. His family confirmed the tragic news, saying they were "heartbroken", adding "he died where he lived: in nature".
Memories Team Beard will be remembered as a photographer, artist husband, father, friend and trailblazer. His work and memories will live on forever.
Memories Team “In an effort to conserve gas for the war effort, my mother would drive my brother and I around on this parachute bike. It could be dismantled for a jump out of a plane. The damage to the planet caused by the use of fossil fuels reminds us to always limit our use wherever and whenever possible," Peter wrote with this image on his Instagram.