Some years ago I worked in communications and technology supporting the broadcast industry around London's creative hub, Soho. I was fortunate enough to work with clients such as the BBC and Channel 4 on innovations in the display and storage of digital still and moving images, at the cutting edge of what we take for granted today.  Those halcyon days passed and I eventually ended up as a head of my own team - but the excitement wasn’t there and the stress was rising. Photography was the escape.
I had been practising photography for over 25 years and  in 2009 I published my first photographic book "London Wide”. It was well received but wasn’t successfully commercial enough to provide escape velocity from the day job.

In 2013 I moved to Bexhill-on-Sea to escape London.  Not long after I took the decision to leave the corporate world and strike out on my own.  I published my second book , "A Wider View Bexhill-on-Sea", in 2015 which continues to be sold directly, and from the Bexhill Museum. 

In 2019 I published my third book, "Travels Around Route 259", a road trip and anecdotal guide of the Sussex coast between Emsworth and Folkestone.

Following on from Covid, having had the time to take stock, in 2023 I decided to devote some of my time to using photography to contribute to good causes and launched the website  Portraitsby.dcharlesmason using portrait photography as a social enterprise.  In 2024 I published the book, Faces of Bexhill - with profits from sales going to the Bexhill Dementia Action Alliance.

In 2025 I'll be publishing a book with profits being contributed to the Bexhill Volya Voices Ukrainian choir.

Pretentious – Moi?
Those people that know me, just call me “Dave”, but it just so happens there are a few “Dave Mason Photographer” out there on the net, plus a well-known guitarist from the band “Traffic".   So I had a look at the family history and discovered that Charles has been used as a family name for over two hundred years.

I thought I’d dust it off and take it for a run…