Meet Pete:
Artist, Adventurer, Animal Lover, and Cat Dad.
I’ve always found peace pursuing two things: freedom and connection.
I’m someone who feels all my emotions deeply, to my core. It can become overwhelming, almost unbearable, to live under the weight of the emotional distress of a recent or not so recent trauma. I've always been told that time is the great healer, but for me, time hasn’t always been so effective. Instead, it has been my own pursuit of freedom and connection that has helped me on my everlong search for peace - a peace that is often found but always fleeting.
These moments of peace have come to me even in my worst stages of grief. Moments where one day I’m at my worst, and the next my absolute best, only to return to my worst days, or even mere hours, later. They’re moments where I have chosen to take charge, chosen to seek myself, chosen to connect with my own thoughts, and chosen to connect with the world around me. Little by little the peace has become less fleeting and more - - peaceful.
As I’ve looked back, I’ve realized these moments are all connected. They’re all when I’ve left my small 800 square foot apartment in the city. They’re all when I’ve left the city all together. Sometimes flying across the world to Kenya or New Zealand, sometimes driving 40 minutes to the closest National Park.
They’re all in nature.
Whether I am basking in blue hour inside the world’s most famous fjord or staring into the soul of a lion at sunset, I’ve found these moments of peace connecting with the natural world.
And so I decided on my medium. Photography focused on nature. Photography focused on my quest for freedom and connection. My quest for peace. And slowly but surely, the more I shoot, the more I connect, the more my mind slows and accepts.
Pete’s Story:
At this same time, I went through one of the most traumatic periods of my life - the end of a difficult relationship and the start of an even more difficult break-up. I became depressed and found myself confined to my apartment again. This time, it took my family pushing me to join them on a trip to Acadia National Park to pull me out of my reverie. For one week, I was able to shoot in nature again and feel the freedom and peace that I had been searching for. But it quickly dissipated. As soon as I got home, I retreated into my bedroom, thinking only of what I had lost and never even editing the many photos I had taken.
A whole year went by. A year of pain and wallowing. A year with moments of laughter and connection. But a year of suffering over all else. In a moment of insanity, I decided to book a solo trip to New Zealand. Taking about a month off work, I travelled to the other side of the world in search of peace. And I found it.
I was back to who I was when I found myself in 2020, doing nothing but getting lost in my craft, shooting incredible scenery while literally standing in the scene myself. I was free - free from my relationships, free from my thoughts, and free from my depression. It felt like three weeks of the first day of spring, feeling the seasonal depression melt away with the first touch of sunlight on my skin. It was glorious.
Of course, the depression did return when I came home, but it was less than before, and I could feel the improvement. I knew then that I had found what I wanted to pursue in my career and my art - photography that conveyed this sense of peace and freedom that I was constantly in search of. I wanted to capture these moments and bottle them up, so I could look on them later and prove to myself that I could feel the way I did while I was in them.
And so - I started my business, Pete Donahoe Photography, and began pursuing and shooting more of these moments - as many as my schedule allowed while still juggling my work as a commercial creative. I travelled to Kenya to shoot wildlife and the Great Migration. I traveled to Ireland to shoot landscapes and connect with my heritage. And finally, I searched for these moments near my home in Chicago.
And here I am, still working hard to become a full time artist where I can pursue these moments every day. Still struggling with my quest for peace yet ready to break free at any moment.
After graduating with a marketing degree from Georgetown University in 2019, I began a career in Corporate America as a sports marketer for Walmart.com. In March of 2020, covid hit. While locked inside my childhood home, I started editing iPhone images from my travels, teaching myself a new skill while daydreaming about freedom and breaking out into the unknown.
Later that year, I decided enough was enough. I may not have been able to socialize, but I could still pursue adventure and exploration — so I bought my first camera and an ancient car with no air conditioning and a leaky engine, and I drove across the country from my hometown of Washington D.C. to Whitefish, Montana. Living just 30 minutes outside Glacier National Park for 2 months, I taught myself the fundamentals of landscape photography.
After a year of nomad living and shooting in nature, I moved to Chicago for a new sports marketing role with Wilson Sporting Goods. Here, I expressed my interest in photography and was given the chance to shoot for the brand. I quickly picked up new skills in lifestyle, events, and sports action photography, while also teaching myself videography and video editing. After 2.5 years of doing this work in addition to my marketing duties, I transitioned into a role as a full-time creator, photographer, and videographer for the brand’s socials.
