Pembrokeshire Life, February 2005

THERE can’t be many fine art photographers who get to eat their subjects at the end of a photo session, but Andy Davies is one of them. Andy, who lives just outside Marloes, is a professional photographer whose speciality
is making close-up studies of the local wildlife - especially fish. “I catch my own fish - bass, herring, wrasse - and photograph them in close-up,” he
explained. “I’m fascinated by the patterns, textures and colours in nature, and fish scales are a perfect example of this. “And when I’ve finished photographing the fish I get to cook it and eat it, which is a bonus,” he added.

Cardiff-born Andy, 42, didn’t set out to be a photographer. He originally trained to be a geophysicist and worked in the oil industry before deciding that his real interest lay in environmental issues. After taking a course on environmental land management he began working in the field of nature conservancy. “My job involved a lot of photographic work and my interest in photography grew out of that,” he explained.

Initially Andy concentrated on landscape photography and his work can be seen in books such as Landscape Wales and the millennium publication Wales in Our Image. He moved to Pembrokeshire in search of a better environment ‘both for living and for subject matter’ and gradually began to develop his own distinctive style of photography which he describes as ‘abstract wildlife’. “I try to make something special out of what might appear ordinary,” he explained.“People tend to think that colourful creatures only exist in the jungle, but I want to show the stunning colour that our own wildlife possesses.”

In taking his close-ups, Andy concentrates on that aspect of the subject he feels is most important, with the rest of the image blurring out of focus to give an impressionistic effect. “Once I’ve taken the photo I don’t manipulate it in any way,” he said. “All the magnification takes place within the camera, and the colours are the colours of nature.”

Andy does all his own printing on a large format printer and sells limited edition prints, framed and unframed, in a variety of sizes. His work can be seen locally at Art Matters in Tenby, Celtic Images at Hilton Court, and at the Studio Gallery, St. David’s.

Keith Thompson