Peter Gladden is a self-taught photographer, having begun to experiment with the camera in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in 1984. In 1992, after spending two years at Kent State University studying under the late Charlie Brill in the photojournalism department, Pete decided to forego more classes and jumped straight into freelance work with given assignments by several sports magazines, most notably Runner's World, Running Times, and Triathlete Magazine. When several of the magazines requested text to go with the pictures, he soon found himself immersed in writing as well.
Within two years of freelancing he was traveling around the world filming and writing about such events as the Raid Gauloises, the Run Across Finland, Powerman Switzerland , the Finland-Russia Relay, and reporting on numerous cycling, triathlon and running races.
In 1994 Pete became an Associate Editor of Triathlete Magazine. His responsibilities included covering age-group and elite national and world championship events as both a photographer and writer, and writing and shooting athlete profile pieces.
Pete was also the official photographer of Pittsburgh's Great Race 10K and the Honolulu Marathon. He was a photo stringer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer when the paper was covering running, triathlon and multi-sports, and was a regular with Runner's World Magazine. He was also a contributor to Ohio Runner Magazine, a publication devoted to the coverage of the Ohio running scene.
Today Pete runs his own photo business and enjoys shooting sports action at all types of sporting events. His strives to capture the art and beauty of the athlete and athletics, as well as the emotion of the events.