Biography of David Wilson

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.

Thank you for viewing my site and I hope you enjoy my work.