Peter Beard Author:Owen Edwards, Steven M.L. Aronson Photographer, collector, diarist, and writer of books Peter Beard has fashioned his life into a work of art; the illustrated diaries he kept from a young age evolved into a serious career as an artist and earned him a central position in the international art world. He was painted by Francis Bacon, painted on by Salvador Dalí, and made diaries w... more »ith Andy Warhol; he toured with Truman Capote and the Rolling Stones, created books with Jacqueline Onassis and Mick Jagger, all of whom are brought to life, literally and figuratively, in his work. As a fashion photographer, he took Vogue stars like Veruschka to Africa and brought new ones?most notably Iman?back to the U.S. with him.
After spending time in Kenya and befriending the author Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) in the early 1960s, Beard bought a piece of land near hers. He witnessed the dawn of Kenya?s population explosion, which challenged finite resources and stressed animal populations?including the starving elephants of Tsavo, dying by the tens of thousands in a wasteland of eaten trees. So he documented what he saw?with diaries, photographs, and collages. He went against the wind in publishing unique and sometimes shocking books of these works. The corpses were laid bare; the facts were carefully written down, sometimes in type, often by hand, occasionally with blood.
Peter Beard?s most important collages are included, along with hundreds of smaller-scale works and diaries, magnified to show every detail?from Beard?s meticulous handwriting and old-masters-inspired drawings to stones and bones and bits of animals pasted to the page.
First published in two volumes as a TASCHEN limited collector?s edition ? now available in a new one-volume popular hardcover edition!« less