ENTRY DESCRIPTION
The name Glyn Davies is synonymous with UK landscape photography, yet his love of the landscape has always been far more important than photography itself. For the last few years however, he has spent much of his time on a project exploring the relationship between vulnerable human figures and open wild environment, where photography has become an integral part of that understanding. In his twenties Glyn discovered the liberation of sunbathing nude on naturist beaches and this has had a major influence on his attitude to nudity and his approach to this project.

“I found myself fascinated by the interplay of stripped-bare naked forms and the naturalness of soft sand and wind-formed dunes, everything seemed ‘right’, understandable and connected. I started to photograph myself in other landscapes, whilst out and about creating images for my gallery and I realised that the simple exploration of nude figures within landscape was becoming an intriguing new project, but there was a growing need to see if others could relate to that same intrigue”.

Glyn used volunteers from the general public to model for this project. “It is not as simple as just making compositions - it is about a sensuous awareness of the natural environment, the pleasure or discomfort we experience when exposed to the elements and surfaces” This is a project created by someone intimately connected to landscape and who has taken many self portraits on the same theme, creating an empathy with the other volunteers”.

“Although the nude is vital to the project & integral within the images, the images are not just ‘nudes’ – they are landscapes & stories. In a way they are just dream-like visual questions, to which viewers can formulate their own answers, influenced by their individual life experiences”

AUTHOR
From a fine art family of artists and artist-lecturers, Glyn drew & painted before taking a Fine-art Foundation Course at Falmouth School of Art, followed by an Honours Degree in Photography, Film at University of Westminster. He started free-lanced in 1987 after graduating, shooting commercial & industrial & portrait work for national clients & private customers but he always retained a love of photographing wild places.

In 2002 Glyn established a photo gallery on Anglesey and concentrated on personal landscape work. Glyn was a specialist printer in the wet darkroom but is a digital print perfectionist now. Since 2011 he's been working on a long-term personal project about vulnerable nude figures in wild landscape, which resulted in a major exhibition "Landscape Figures", at the Ynys Môn Gallery.

His love of landscape and solitude; the drama of light and weather over the terrain is a spiritual inspiration. It's rapid changes and the variety of changing scenes leaves him ecstatic, especially when alone. "It’s like nature is giving something up of itself to me personally, at that precise moment for no one else will ever see the exact same interplay of light over land unless standing at precisely my location. I feel so honoured and humbled by wild landscape & the elements that I have a need to share my excitement in the form of immaculately crafted compositions, portraying as vividly as possible what I’d experienced"
Glyn has been featured frequently on TV and Radio and features about his work have appeared in numerous publications over the decades but he’s particularly pleased to have published four books of his own, two of which, "Anglesey Landscapes" 1 & 2 were bought by the Prime Minister as a Royal wedding gift for William and Kate.

Glyn's stock imagery is now exclusively represented by Corbis.com

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