David Wilson

Artwork
Biography

Click on a piece to view it in detail:

Abandoned Farm, The Preselis

This image perfectly encsapsulates what I want to portray in my work and indeed is the sort of photograph I love to take. Towering over the farm are the Preseli hills shrouded in mist and looking rather foreboding. The fabric of the farm is just beginning to deteriorate - slates missing from the roof, windows falling apart - and the house and outbuildings look vulnerable and desolate. This is a picture of a once active farm in the early throes of decay.

Treleddyd Fawr Cottage, near St David's

As a self-confessed architectural history junkie finding this gem was truly exhilirating. Owned and lived in by Mr Griffiths, this cottage in the Pembrokeshire vernacular style is a piece of living history. It has stood for about two hundred years and the only major difference between when it was built and now is that it has electricity. Everything else is as original and it's beautiful.

Cwmorthin Quarry, near Blaenau Ffestiniog

The slog up to Cwmorthin is rewarded with the most beautiful sense of tranquility. I lay on a carpet of springy moss at the edge of the lake and closed my eyes. The only noise was that of twittering birds. Truly magical.

Bird Rock, Cwm Pennant, near Dolgellau

This almost sea-level valley meanders in from the coast right up to the feet of Cadair Idris. And rising out of the valley floor is Bird Rock. Melted snow had caused flooding in the valley which afforded the opportunity for this reflective shot.

Broad Haven South, Pembrokeshire, West Wales

Just along the coast from Barafundle this is another glorious beach. As you can see the processing of this image has resulted in an entirely different feel and mood to the Barafundle photo. I love the almost pure blacks and whites in this very contrasty image. It's all about the shapes really.

Barafundle, Pembrokeshire, West Wales

Pembrokeshire is awash with idyllic beaches and Barafundle would be very near the top of the pile if not at the summit. A beautiful sweeping bay hemmed in by sheer cliffs and with a magical wooded area to the rear of the beach with its fine white sand. Voted one of the top ten beaches in the world in one survey and anyone who has ever been there will know why

Newgale, Pembrokeshire, West Wales

A rare opportunity to capture a truly black storm brewing. The sun was dipping behind the darkest of clouds while a sheet of rain drenches St Davids Head to the right. A subject such as this, with its limited range of tones, works perfectly in black and white.

Starlings, Pembrokeshire, West Wales

The birds. Thank god for the birds. Came past at just the right moment. Mind, I had been watching them for ages moving around the field in flock formation landing here and there. But always just too far away to work. Then as I was about to give up hope they performed a stunning fly-by right in front of the camera. I salute them.

Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire

Three Cliffs Bay, Gower

My love of landscape photography began when I bought my first camera at the age of seventeen. I spent many carefree days riding around Pembrokeshire on my motorbike with my 35mm Canon and an ordnance survey map, learning to take landscape photographs while exploring the coast and countryside. Due to my habit of colliding with objects the motorbike is now history, but my passion for photography, particularly black and white landscape, is stronger than ever.

Situated on the very western tip of Wales and surrounded on three sides by the sea, Pembrokeshire is an idyllic location to indulge in landscape photography. In my work I seek to capture the county's many different faces; the windswept coast of mid-winter, a sunny spring dawn on the Cleddau Estuary, a derelict cottage, or the gentle contours of the Preseli mountains.

It really is a county of contrasts. A sun-kissed summer shore is another place entirely in the depths of January when howling winds whip across the sand and waves crash over the pebbles.

In essence I photograph the Pembrokeshire I see throughout the year. Living here I witness both its beauty and bleakness.

I was born and brought up in Haverfordwest and now live just a few miles downstream in the riverside village of Llangwm with my wife Anna, our young son Charlie and baby boy Harry. With the water just a stone's throw from our back garden, it provides endless inspiration. On a clear morning I often head along the foreshore and round the corner to Port Lion for sunrise. It's a wonderfully solitary experience, knowing it's just me, the crisp early morning air and occasionally the village's resident gaggle of geese who have made Llangwm their home.

I'm predominantly, though not exclusively, a fine art black and white landscape photographer. I feel that Pembrokeshire lends itself perfectly to tonal interpretation. Black and white can convey both drama and tranquility. A monochrome print lures you into the image while retaining a hint of mystery. Each time I revisit a black and white landscape I see, sense or feel something new depending on my mood at the time. And that's what I love about monochrome, its ability to reach inside and elicit an emotive response. I still appreciate and enjoy colour and recognise that many subjects or landscapes are enhanced by it. But my heart's in black and white.

As a landscape photographer I see Pembrokeshire's subtlety as its strength. We don't have epic snow-capped peaks like Snowdonia or the Highlands. What we do have is infinitely more understated, difficult to define or pigeon-hole. And it's the quest to capture that 'something' inside my camera that inspires me and drives me on.