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David continued experimenting with photography
and printing into his 90
th
year. He embraced the digital
revolution and the opportunity to photograph almost
until his death. Latterly, in public talks, he expanded
on his thinking about his experiences working at
the leading edge of the media forms that placed
the photographic image at the centre of twentieth–
century culture. He would discuss aesthetics and
the challenges of negotiating the tension between
the visual composition and truth to 'the moment',
and of the importance of engaging with people, and
generously share his knowledge of the technologies
and techniques that characterised his approach to
photography - making images that would not only
record the world but interpret it both critically and
sympathetically for future generations. His insights
were always accessible and, as an incorrigible
raconteur, his ideas were shaped by stories told with
an inimitable mix of humour and self-deprecation.
David was, perhaps more than most of his
contemporaries, a photographer of wide ranging
interests and engagements that spanned the second
half of the twentieth century, all focused through the
eye of an artist intent of revealing the human qualities
and values of his subjects.
John Adams
'People think far too much about
techniques and not enough about
seeing. In photography, the smallest
thing can be a great subject'
Cartier-Bresson
