Pete McBride
Expertise & Specialties
Current Location
Top Clients:
National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Outside, Men’s Journal, Esquire, The Washington Post, Google, USAID
Biography
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1993, Pete McBride, who was raised in Old Snowmass, Colorado, took an internship at High Country News. “I was a writer, but soon they began publishing my photos and I realized you could tell a really compelling story through photographs,” he says. “So I started to pursue that aspect of journalism in earnest.” In 1999, Pete and two aviation enthusiasts piloted a WWI replica, open-cockpit biplane on a reenactment of 1920’s first African air passage from London to Cape Town, up the Nile, and down eastern Africa. “It took 58 days. Two French Mirage jet fighters intercepted us over the Red Sea. And later we crashed near Kilimanjaro and had to rebuild the plane in the bush,” says Pete. “But National Geographic bought the story on spec and it helped kickstart my career.” Since then, he’s written and shot photos for Smithsonian, Men’s Journal and Outside—and walked the entire length of the Grand Canyon for a National Geographic project, a journey that turned into a book, film, and speaking tour.
Career Highlights
150+
Editorial & commercial Assignments
30+
Magazine Covers
25
Years of Experience
Experience
Awards and
Recognition
20191106
National Outdoor Book Award (2)
20160912
National Geographic “Freshwater Hero.”
20161102
National Geographic "Adventurer of the Year"
Over the past twenty years, I’ve worked closely with Pete on assignments that have taken us from the Canadian Arctic and the Horn of Africa to the base of Mount Everest—and that includes 14 months traversing the Grand Canyon on foot,” says Kevin Fedarko, author of “The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon.”
Pete is not only a world-class photographer and filmmaker, but also a superb collaborator. He’s highly organized, deeply dedicated to his craft, and tenacious. He never gives up, regardless of the difficulties and challenges that often manifest in the field.
Pete spent the last 25 years exploring with a camera in hand. His adventures have ranged for the raucous to the grueling, with forays into the dangerous and heart wrenching as well. The locations tell the tale: Everest, Kenya, the Arctic, America’s desert Southwest, and more. Today, in between assignments, Pete tells those stories to large audiences and small as a public speaker and published author.
“I like to suffer,” says Pete. “I spent 71 days carrying a 50-plus-pound pack through the Grand Canyon with no trail. I’m fine with no electricity and little food. I lost 40 pounds on that outing, but I’m fine with the physical challenges (to a degree) if I believe it will help me tell an important story .”
