Peter McBride

Coloradan Pete McBride has spent two decades studying the world with a camera. A self-taught photographer, filmmaker, writer, and public speaker, he has traveled on assignment to over 75 countries for the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Google, The Nature Conservancy and spoken on stages for TEDx, The World Economic Forum, USAID, Nat Geo Live and more.

After a decade documenting remote expeditions from Everest to Antarctica, McBride decided to focus his cameras closer to home on a subject closer to his heart—his backyard river, the Colorado. Four years and 1500 river-miles later, McBride produced an acclaimed book, three award-winning documentaries and co-hosted a PBS TV program. Other watersheds soon called, including a source-to-sea look at India’s sacred Ganges River. Upon completing the journey, The National Geographic Society named McBride a “Freshwater Hero.”

In 2016, McBride hiked the entire length of Grand Canyon National Park—over 750 miles without a trail—to highlight development challenges facing this iconic landscape. After completing the journey, National Geographic named him and his hiking companion, writer Kevin Fedarko, “Adventurers of the Year.” McBride has since released a Rizzoli book, Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim, that won a National Outdoor Book Award and a feature-length documentary, Into the Grand Canyon, for National Geographic Channel, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2020.

His latest project explores the power and fragility of natural sounds and quietude. Smithsonian and The Week magazines named the accompanying book, Seeing Silence, one of the top photo books of 2021. McBride holds a BA from Dartmouth College, was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford and resides in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.