An Unlikely Photographer publishes on 31 July 2025, with the launch at Llangwm Literature Festival following on Saturday, 9th August 2025. Tickets for this book talk with David are available to purchase here.

An Unlikely Photographer is an autobiographical account of David Wilson’s journey from near death and a life-changing injury to a vision which has uniquely captured the character of Wales’s landscapes through his lens. Acclaimed for his striking black and white images of the nation’s wildness and natural beauty, David Wilson’s remarkable body of photographic work was almost never realised.

His passion for the medium began in and was shaped by his native Pembrokeshire, with many adventures undertaken in his youth with a 35mm Canon and an Ordnance Survey map.

At the age of eighteen, though, a motorbike accident came close to costing him his life, and left him changed for ever. Emotively told and with searing honesty, An Unlikely Photographer recounts David’s journey from that defining incident, to his eventual coming to terms with an incomplete recovery, finding love and becoming one of Wales’s finest photographers.

David Wilson is among Wales’s most established photographers, well known for his black and white images that uniquely evoke the character and atmosphere of the nation’s landscapes. His work with Graffeg includes the photographic studies PembrokeshireandWales: A Photographer’s Journey, Hinterland: Ceredigion Landscapes, The Village and A Year in Pembrokeshire, with broadcaster Jamie Owen.

‘I salute David. This is an inspiring account of sheer determination and bloody-mindedness in building a life and finding happiness in spite of a terrible injury.’ Griff Rhys Jones, Actor, Comedian, Writer and Television presenter

‘David Wilson is one of the most gifted landscape photographers of his generation. That alone is a story worth sharing. But his fight for life after staring death in the face and his learning to walk again is one of the most inspiring reads you’ll find anywhere.’ Jamie Owen, Writer and Broadcaster.

Being roughly the same age as the author I can relate to having similar experiences in my youth. The book is well written and insightful. I like the cricket analogy on life and even though I suffered a bad accident in my youth and spent along time in hospital but reading this made me realise how lucky I was.
I'm only half way through but a very good read so far!
Amazon Review

A fascinating and often very painful biography, of one of the finest landscape photographers in Britain. The book is a beautifully written and inspirational account of dogged survival, culminating in the achievement of a lifelong dream. I have long admired David Wilson's evocative photographs of Wales. The story of the road to their creation is a book I will not part with or forget for a long time.
Amazon Review

This is a highly engaging and entertaining read. I have enjoyed David's photography for many years, and reading the back story to his work was fascinating. I found the book at times heartwarming and at times challenging, but always well written and humorous.
Amazon Review