About the Artist

Peter Delaney

Delaney Wild Photography

It all started when…

A long time ago...

Peter emigrated from Ireland to the bright lights of London. Ireland was mired in a deep recession with high unemployment. For many young Irish men and women, leaving Ireland was their only way to find work.

Peter found work as a money broker in London's Square Mile, the heart of the world's financial markets. During a lunch break, Peter wandered into an old bookshop. Don McCullin's photography book piqued his interest. He opened the book and looked at the striking black-and-white documentary photographs.

One photograph, in particular, struck a chord with Peter: a portrait of a homeless Irishman. “I couldn't believe the impact this photograph had on me; it evoked so many emotions and questions in me. It was then that I realized the power of a photograph." He had no idea that this book by Don McCullin would inspire him to become a fine-art photographer many years later.

Peter became obsessed with photography after purchasing McCullins' book. He devoured photography books and magazines, as well as attending every photography exhibition in London. However, it was one exhibit in particular that had a profound impact on Peter. In 1995, he attended the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum. 

“I was awestruck by the nature photography on display, particularly Chery Alexander's blue iceberg; these winning photographs were not simply documentary photographs of the natural world; they went one step further into the realm of the art of photography” 

Peter left his job as a money broker in 2001 while working in his company's Tokyo office. Peter had always wanted to drive across Africa in a Landcruiser. He decided to follow his dream and drove in his 4x4 from Cape Town to Kampala, Uganda, visiting 14 countries along the way.

"The sheer size and magnitude of this continent were overwhelming; I hiked through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to view the last mountain gorillas, climbed Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya's snow peaks, kayaked in the aqua blue waters of Malawi and Mozambique, and flew in a hot-air balloon over the red dunes of the Kalahari, I was able to complete everything I had fantasized about at my desk”

When Peter picked up a book by Frans Lanting in a tented camp in Uganda, he realized he no longer wanted to return to London and continue his job as a money broker, but instead pursue a career as a fine-art photographer.

Peter turned around and drove back to South Africa, selling his house in the United Kingdom and buying a house on the Garden Route in the Western Cape. Peter had no experience and very little knowledge of life and tribulations of a fine-art nature photographer. Regardless, he threw himself into his new found life and with in a short time, reached his goals of being published in National Geographic and wining the coveted Wildlife Photographer Of the Year an astonishing 3 times. Peter has become a very accomplished fine-art photographer and has his work exhibited and published worldwide and his fine-art prints highly sought after.

Peter loves his new life as a photographer in Africa, but loves even more so his amazing wife Nicolinah and three beautiful boys, Neo, Lerato, and Shay.

Photos from some of Peter's most memorable moments in his photography career.