I’m David duChemin and I want to help you make the strongest, most compelling photographs of your life, and to do so with joy and freedom, to make photographs that are more than just good, but truly your own.
I’m a photographer, and author, based—when I’m home—on Vancouver Island, Canada. A former humanitarian photographer creating images of hope and dignity for the international NGO community, my work pivoted after a life-altering accident while photographing in Italy in 2011. Now a below-the-knee amputee, my calling lies in turning my lens toward the natural world and nudging others to pursue a life of intention and creativity.
“Life,” to quote the late Helen Keller, “is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
How can I help you?
If you want to experience this astonishing world through my eyes, join me as I swim with humpback whales in Tonga, follow the elusive Spirit Bear in Canada’s Great Bear Rain Forest, or experience the Christmas pilgrimage in Lalibela, Ethiopia through my photographs, you can see them in my current portfolios here.
If you’re a photographer and want to learn more about the craft and art of photography, and you’re done with the gimmicks and the shortcuts and want to go deeper, you can find many of my books and resources on Craft & Vision here.
If you’re wondering how to join me on one of my adventures, either a workshop or a shared travel opportunity, like joining one of my Kenyan safaris or photographing grizzly bears in British Columbia, you can be among the first to find out about those opportunities by joining my Adventure List here. The only emails you’ll get from me by joining this list are specifically related to travel and workshops.
If you’re reading this About Me stuff then you might not know me yet, so consider starting easy and downloading this awkwardly titled PDF eBook: 20 Ways to Stop Messing Around with Your Camera and Make Better Photographs Without Buying Any More Gear. Yours free in the hopes that we’ll hit it off.
Want to hear from me more often? Get The Contact Sheet. I send this out once every two weeks or so. No one needs another newsletter, but relevant articles about the craft and art of photography, as well as first glimpses of my new work, usually through downloadable PDF monographs I don’t make available elsewhere? These are the kind of emails people open and read and send thank you letters about; it’s good stuff, I promise. Join me and 100,000 other photographers on this journey of photographic vision. Let me send you this PDF and I’ll automatically add you to the Contact Sheet. You can unsubscribe at any time.
And if you find your creative life a bit of a daily fight, this is your invitation to listen to A Beautiful Anarchy, my podcast series about the joys and challenges of everyday creativity. Short, relevant episodes (usually around 15 minutes long) made for people, like me, who aren’t really podcast people but need the occasional kick in the creative pants, and to know they aren’t alone in what often feels like a fight. You can listen on iTunes, most podcast services, or at aBeautifulAnarchy.com
If you’re looking to discuss a speaking engagement or assignment work related to international development or conservation, please drop my team an email. My manager’s name is Corwin and he’ll take good care of you until I’m back from following shepherds in Lesotho, or whatever adventure I’m currently on. Drop Corwin an email here.
Want More? Here’s the Rest
My travels have taken me through seven continents and 58 countries to date, though I prefer to experience a place deeply, and often, rather than see everything once and only skim the surface. I’ve worked through winters in Russia and Mongolia, a summer on the Amazon, and spent time among nomads in the Indian Himalayan and remote Northern Kenya. My assignment work has taken me to Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Ethiopia, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Bangladesh, among others, and I’ve pursued personal work in places like Iceland, Antarctica, Tunisia, Cuba, Vietnam, Kenya, and Italy, among others.
Drawing on a previous career in comedy, and a love for storytelling and communication (I moonlight for Apple as their Creative Storytelling Specialist), I make myself available on a limited basis for keynote presentations and training on photography, creativity and entrepreneurial topics, but give me a microphone and a willing audience and I’ll talk about almost anything, especially if that’s the power of constraints in the creative process. We’re all missing something, and that can either be a excuse not to do our best work, or the power behind it.
As of June 2023, I’ve been missing my right leg below the knee. After a nearly fatal fall in Italy in 2011, which shattered my feet and broke my pelvis, I spent 12 years working to get back to normal. I never did. Now an amputee in a prosthetic leg, I’m doing things I haven’t for years, and am more convinced than ever that what doesn’t kill us gives us something to blog about. You can read more about the amputation here and here.
Much to my great surprise and gratitude, my books have been translated into a dozen languages and are celebrated for their humanity, approachability, and a focus on vision & creativity over the gear and pixel-peeping our industry is so prone to. You can find my latest books, The Heart of the Photograph, The Soul of the Camera, as well as Within The Frame, The Visual Toolbox, and A Beautiful Anarchy all on Amazon or anywhere good books are sold.