Peter Beste

This is an in-progress documentation. Photos taken since Summer 2023.

What is Dungeon Synth?

288 page photography book about the heavy metal battlevest & surrounding culture.

Intro by Biff Byford of Saxon

Out on Sacred Bones Books now.

Order in the Store

Music portraits

In the last three decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called black metal has emerged in Norway. Its roots stem from a heady blend of horror films, extreme heavy metal music, Satanism, pagan mythology, and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990's, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as a juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society. I spent seven years photographing this insulated and secretive community.

In 2008 Vice books published a large monograph entitled True Norwegian Black Metal

True Norwegian Black Metal
Photographs by Peter Beste
208 Pages. Hardcover. 11.5" x 14.5"
May 2008 (Vice Books)

*Signed limited edition prints are also available. Please contact peterbeste (at) gmail (dot) com for info

Houston Rap is an immersion into the everyday life of the Houston hip-hop community. This hardcover 272 page book features the photography of Peter Beste who spent 9 years documenting the culture alongside writer Lance Scott Walker. The book is edited by Johan Kugelberg who also worked with Peter on his previous book True Norwegian Black Metal (Vice) which to date has sold through 4 editions.

The Houston, Texas neighborhoods of Fifth Ward, Third Ward, and South Park have grown to be hallowed ground for modern hip hop culture, possessing self-contained celebrities, entrepreneurs, support networks, and a micro-economy of their own.

Houston Rap profiles noted artists such as Bun B of UGK, Z-Ro, Big Mike, K-Rino, Willie D of the Geto Boys, Lil’ Troy, Street Military and Paul Wall, alongside reflections on the lives of departed legends such as DJ Screw, OG Style, Pimp C, and Big Hawk.

The book also features community leaders, rappers, producers, businessmen, and family members, all providing an astonishing and important insight into a great American cultural narrative.

*Purchase signed copy*

“We edited the book as a 24 hour glimpse into the culture,” says Johan Kugelberg. “We take you from the projects to the studio to the strip club and back, all along with an on-going oral history narrative from the people of the culture.” “We see it as an immersion,” says Peter Beste. “The idea was always to provide an insight into the community of the arguably most powerful hip-hop scene in the world today.”

A selection of images from festivals and concerts.

Danseband culture is a rich and historic rural tradition in Scandinavian countries. This work was commissioned by Rockheim, Norway’s first rock ‘n’ roll museum, and was released in book form by Aschehoug in 2018.

I spent a week photographing Grime crews, MC's and pirate radio stations in East London in 2005

These photographs were taken between 2009-2012 documenting the controversial geo-engineering phenomenon.

UFO culture in the American West. Photos taken from 2009-2012