Peter Caton

FESTIVAL SPEAKER

Peter Caton is an internationally recognised photojournalist whose work lies at the intersection of environmental justice, humanitarian storytelling, and social impact. With over two decades of experience behind the lens, Peter has dedicated his career to documenting the lives of those affected most by climate change, conflict, and inequality - often in regions that are underrepresented in mainstream media.

Born in Scarborough, England, Peter was raised at the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, where his parents ran a large children’s home. Their lifelong commitment to social work instilled in him a strong moral foundation and a deep sensitivity to the struggles of others.

While earning his degree in photography in Middlesbrough, he was further shaped by the socioeconomic challenges of northern England’s working-class communities. These early influences sparked a lifelong dedication to using visual storytelling as a tool for empathy, awareness, and change.

In 2006, after several formative trips to South Asia, Peter made the life-changing decision to live out of a suitcase and fully commit to a freelance career in photojournalism. He has lived on the road for 19 years, the last ten in Africa, where he has documented climate-related crises throughout the continent.

He began working extensively across the subcontinent, taking on assignments with leading humanitarian and environmental NGOs including Save the Children, CARE, Greenpeace, WFP, UNICEF, UNAIDS, MSF, Oxfam, and The Red Cross. His projects took him deep into communities experiencing the front lines of crisis, from displacement to drought, from rising seas to public health emergencies.

In 2007, Peter was commissioned to document the growing crisis of climate refugees in the Sundarbans region of India. The assignment, and the subsequent devastation caused by Cyclone Sidr in neighbouring Bangladesh, became a turning point in his career. These experiences profoundly shaped his world view and cemented his commitment to highlighting the human face of climate change. His work since then has been driven by a desire to tell urgent, often unseen stories through compassionate and powerful visual narratives.

In the years that followed, Peter’s photography became a fixture in international exhibitions and galleries. In 2010, he partnered with Greenpeace to launch Sinking Sundarbans at London’s Oxo Gallery - a powerful exhibition that toured globally, appearing in cities across Asia, South America, and the United States. His environmental lens later turned to Brazil’s threatened Cerrado, the world’s most biodiverse savannah, where industrial agriculture and monoculture farming pose an existential threat to local ecosystems. This work was met with critical acclaim in Brazil, with solo shows in major cities and a landmark projection of his images onto the exterior of the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo.

For the past decade, Peter has called Africa home - living and working across the continent to document some of the most urgent humanitarian and climate-related crises of our time. From the parched landscapes of East Africa’s drought-stricken communities to the floodwaters displacing thousands in South Sudan, Peter’s lens has remained focused on the lived experiences of resilience, vulnerability, and hope. His work in Africa has earned him multiple international accolades, including an International Photography Award (IPA) for environmental photography.

For four years, relentless flooding has devastated South Sudan, displacing entire communities and leaving many with little hope of return. As the world’s youngest country - gaining independence in 2011 - South Sudan faces immense challenges in its struggle to recover from conflict while also battling the growing climate crisis. Some experts fear this could become the first case of permanent mass displacement due to climate change. In 2024, the crisis continued, with 1.4 million people affected across 43 counties. The impact is severe - over eight million people face hunger and acute food insecurity, more than half the country’s population. Farmland lies submerged, crops are destroyed, and remote communities, such as those in Old Fangak, now rely on wild foods like water lilies for survival.

Peter has documented this unfolding disaster over four years, traveling to northern South Sudan during the rainy seasons. His first experience photographing the floods was in 2020, and by 2022, nearly one million people had been affected. The flooding began in 2019, at a time when South Sudan was still recovering from a brutal civil war that claimed nearly 400,000 lives. As rising waters encircled villages, people became trapped, unable to flee outbreaks of violence. Others lost everything, forced into displacement camps that were soon cut off by floodwaters. The economic toll of this climate catastrophe is estimated at £542million, with crop failures and livestock losses accelerating famine.

With no signs of the waters receding, the struggle for survival persists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that South Sudan’s floods will only worsen as global temperatures rise. Solutions remain elusive in a nation where conflict weakens infrastructure and response efforts.

Peter’s images have been widely published in global media outlets such as The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, El País, Marie Claire, Esquire, and GEO. His stark and dignified black-and-white portraits of leprosy survivors were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, showcasing his ability to capture both hardship and humanity with grace and sensitivity.

Today, Peter continues to live a nomadic life, traveling light with just a suitcase and his camera gear. He shoots with a digital Hasselblad H5D-50c and portable Elinchrom lighting, enabling him to produce studio-quality imagery even in the most remote and environmentally vulnerable locations. Driven by a belief that photography can inform, inspire, and ignite change, Peter remains committed to telling the stories that matter - wherever they unfold.

We are pleased to note that Peter has recently reached his target on Kickstarter to publish his book, UNYIELDING FLOODS with DEWI LEWIS Publishing. If you’re quick, you can still help, contribute and secure a copy of book and rewards at : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35974461/unyielding-floods