Peter Beard

A monumental portrait of one of the most eccentric and influential photographic chroniclers of the twentieth century. This two-volume edition brings together Peter Beard’s celebrated photographs, diaries and collages in unprecedented scope. Beard, who turned his own life into an artistic practice, captured in Nigeria, Kenya and other parts of Africa the charged tension between nature, wilderness and human intervention with direct, at times almost brutal visual honesty.

His images and handwritten notes, enriched with drawings, found objects, newspaper clippings and sculptural collages, are not merely documents but autonomous works of art that dissolve the boundaries between photography, object and diary. The publication includes Beard’s iconic collages alongside numerous lesser-known works, meticulously reproduced to reveal even the smallest details of his handwriting, drawings and materials.

This edition underscores Beard’s singular position within the international art world of the twentieth century, his creative network with figures such as Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí, and his obsessive, uncompromising engagement with image, memory and transience.