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“These issues that we’re dealing with – the suffocation of the land, the suffocation of diverse nature, the killing of the species is unbelievable. Do you know how many species we’ve eliminated just in our lifetime? It’s tragic.” — Peter Beard

The renowned photographer, writer, conservationist, friend of artists ranging from Bacon to Warhol, and legendary bon vivant Peter Beard was found dead on Sunday, April 19, after having been missing since late March. For Earth Day, we honor his passing and his passion, with this 2013 video from Nowness by filmmaker Derek Peck. We get a glimpse of Beard’s life at his home in Montauk – making collages and holding forth about his passions for photography and nature.

From Nowness:

Peter Beard has been documenting and interpreting Africa’s epic landscapes and indigenous species for nearly six decades. Here he gives a rare insight into his life and practice in this meditative short from director Derek Peck. Shot at Beard’s home in Montauk, Long Island, we find the artist, author and photographer continuing to develop his complex collage practice that brings together found objects, contact sheets, literary quotes and photographs from Tsavo, Kenya, where he made some of his most memorable and affecting work on elephants in the 60s and 70s. “It does the heart good to see what nature has made available to us,” he says in today’s film. “Nature is the best thing we’ve got.” In his delicate, ornate work, his passion for the natural world is evident, and his commitment to the protection of the environment remains unwavering. “Peter is by turns charming and humorous, dark and brooding, and nostalgic,” Peck says of working with Beard. “Every photo in the collage would trigger a stream of thought about his time in Africa, photography, Montauk, and, especially, his concern for, and anger over, the state of the natural world. This subject more than any other has been at the heart of his work over his lifetime.”