David is a photographer based in Scotland who has been creating art in one form or another since time began.
Born in Tasmania, his early life revolved mainly around music. Classically trained, he spent most of the 80's and 90's as a touring and recording musician before moving to the UK at the end of the 90s. He is credited rightly or wrongly in the music media as being one of the people who "invented grunge".
David was given a camera in 2011 and the lure of the landscape quickly evolved into an obsession. Just like his music, David's photography is dark and brooding. There is depth and emotion in his photos and he finds a natural beauty in sadness that gives his images a haunting air of quiet gravitas. The solitude is only occasionally broken by glimpses of dry humour.
His photography mostly consists of landscape and seascape images of the Scottish Islands & Highlands and the Nordic countries as well as England, Vietnam and Australia. His recent work involves more intimate microscapes - landscapes in miniature.
His images have previously been shortlisted for the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year award and have been recognised in a number of international competitions. His first book the beauty of solitude was published in 2016. He has had a handful of solo exhibitions and was included in the 107th Annual London Salon touring exhibition in 2018.
artist statement
My art is personal and unashamedly dark. I take inspiration from painters such as Salvator Rosa and the sublime landscapes of 18/19th century Romantics like Caspar David Friedrich, as well as the claustrophobic landscapes of Australian surrealist James Gleeson. I am fascinated by the lure of the natural world and my own emotional response to it.
I view the camera as a tool and photography as Art. I am not overly concerned with representing reality in the photographic process. I make use of a number of 'in-camera' techniques to realise my vision, and usually do only minor post-production (extracting detail, mono conversion, manual stitching of panoramas, etc). My images inevitably have a painterly feel to them.
It is the combination of camera and landscape that compels me.