Aspen’s award-winning photographer receives Ansel Adams Award

Pete McBride was as surprised as anyone when news of the prestigious Ansel Adams Award arrived.

“I knew nothing about it,” he said. “I got a notice about it a little bit in advance, telling me to be available to try to listen. And then I got an award in the mail.”

The 2025 Ansel Adams Award for excellence in conservation photography, given by the Sierra Club, recognizes McBride as a career achievement honoree for his decades of work documenting fragile landscapes and inspiring environmental action.

“It’s a super great honor,” said McBride, who grew up in the Aspen area and now lives in Basalt. His family has been in the local area since the 1960s, and his father, John McBride, started the Aspen Junior Hockey Program.

McBride added, “I don’t ever pretend to be in the ballpark of Ansel Adams, but I’ve worked as a photographer and filmmaker for more than 30 years, and now I do a lot of books and public speaking as well.”

He credited Adams with inspiring him to “think and look differently with photography” and to “use the camera as a tool.” He began his photography career working in the days of darkrooms and following some of Ansel’s techniques.

The lifetime achievement award places McBride among distinguished conservation photographers who follow in Adams’ tradition of using imagery to protect wild spaces. 

“I never had a dream of being a photographer,” he said. “I was going to be an architect or a doctor.” 

After graduating from Dartmouth University, he started working at newspapers and fell in love with the arc of storytelling. He even worked at The Aspen Times for a short while.

As he began getting stories into bigger publications, one assignment led to a series of extreme photography assignments from documenting Sherpa route-builders on Everest to scuba diving alone under Antarctic ice highlighting climate change. But it was ultimately his father’s suggestion to focus on water that transformed his work.

His father’s advice to do a story on water led to a source-to-sea trip on the Colorado River 15 years ago, beginning what would become McBride’s signature body of work. He has since produced three films and two books on the Colorado River, including “The Colorado River: Chasing Water,” published in 2024.

His upcoming book, “Witness to Water,” will compile his stories from National Geographic and Outside magazines with personal reflections on following the Colorado River for two decades. He’s also working on a children’s book and a documentary. His river work to raise awareness includes the distinction of being the last person to paddle the Colorado River to the sea, as well as his 800 miles trek through the Grand Canyon. He calls it “a thirsty death march” that was “more than a walk in the park.”

During the pandemic, McBride explored another conservation theme with a book on silence and the power of quiet in the natural world, examining its importance not just for wildlife but for human mental health.

“I think these are all related to the Ansel Adams Award,” he said, commenting on his efforts with wild spaces, landscapes, the natural world, wildlife, and conservation. “In today’s divided world, I think there’s power in story and art, trying to bring us together and remind us what’s important.”