“I think there are two ways to approach taking photographs,  you can either ‘record’ what’s happening in front of you, or you can ‘create’ an image… 
I’ve always preferred the idea of creating”

David Stetson was born in the East-end of London in 1953. After art school in the early 1970’s, he launched his career as a photographer, specialising in Fashion, Beauty & Portraiture. He became contributing photographer for many leading national magazines & newspapers. In the late 70’s after completing an assignment in New York for The Sunday Times Magazine, He was so impressed with the energy of ‘The City’ that He decided to move to New York permanently. After a couple of years David established his own studio on Manhattan’s Park Avenue South. During that time he worked mostly for commercial clients, comprising of leading fashion & beauty brands, in addition to becoming a regular contributing photographer to many publications including Andy Warhol’s Interview & The New York Times. Before leaving New York, David graduated a post-graduate course from NYU in film making.

David spent a brief time in Cape Town SA, where he shot the fashion pages for the inaugural issue of South African Cosmopolitan Magazine. After a brief time back in the UK in the early 1990’s, he started working for Japanese clients. David travelled to Japan on assignment many times, finally deciding to move to Tokyo, where he lived and worked for many years. During that time, and in addition to Fashion Photography, he worked as Director / Cameraman on a series of music promotion videos for Japanese artists & record companies including Sony & Warner Music Japan, plus producing & directing corporate identity & in-store promotion videos. In the late 90’s David was appointed as Art Director & Chief Photographer to ‘Wine Magazine’ at Ohta Publications Tokyo. In that capacity he was responsible for the overall design of the magazine, in addition to photographing selected worldwide travel assignments covering the International Wine Industry, International Hotels and trends in Fashion & Lifestyle.

While in Japan David founded Mode Innovations, a business specialising in Photography, Design & Creative Services. In that capacity, he worked as Creative Directer & Photographer, in addition to freelancing to other Ad Agencies as a ‘Consultant’ Creative Director, supervising many advertising campaigns and corporate events for Japanese & international luxury brands including Christian Dior, Jun Ashida, Givenchy, Davidoff, Guerlain, Hugo Boss, Yves Saint Laurent and many others. Mode Innovations was commissioned by Volkswagen Japan to design, photograph & produce their annual calendar. Consequently that year, (2002) David won a prestigious award in the coveted ‘Corporate Calendar of The Year’ contest. In 2010 the Japanese National TV Network, (NHK) produced an hour long documentary featuring David on assignment in Kyoto, (the ancient capital of Japan). It’s the only time a foreign photographer has ever been allowed access to the secret world of the Geisha community, consequently the documentary was titled “Forbidden Kyoto”, and aired worldwide to 160 countries.

David has since relocated back to England. His body of work, over the 45+ years of his career, include portraits of Sophia Loren, Alfred Hitchcock & HRH Princess Diana among many others. He has compiled a huge archive of worldwide travel and art photography, which is currently being assembled into collections, to form an image bank for a new online greeting card company to be named Dcards.gallery.

David Stetson’s work has earned him creative awards in photography and design. On a number of occasions he has been interviewed by magazines and on television, and he has lectured at photographic institutes. His Art Photography work has been exhibited many times at major galleries in London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore & Cologne, and he has two pieces, that incorporate B&W photography and neon sculpture, hanging permanently in the Malcolm Forbes Private Art Collection.