“I’ve always been interested in wildlife: in working with it and attempting to document it,” begins David. “When I started in photography, I started with wildlife and natural history because that was easy for me to do as a very young person. My father was a keen photographer, so even at eight or nine I could photograph things in the garden relatively easily. “But when I started working as a photographer, I never thought it would be possible to generate income from wildlife photography. I considered it an addition to what I was doing as a professional – a way for me to use a skill I had to really look at something I cared greatly about.” Instead, David’s first career step was sports photography. “While doing an HND qualification in advertising, editorial and documentary photography, I was very passionate about sport. I wanted to be a sports photographer in the days of Eamonn McCabe and others,” he recalls. “I joined a sports agency straight out of art college. It gave me access to and the ability to use long lenses. In those days, everything was manual focus, manual exposure.” Working through a period of countless advances in photography, David experienced the pros and cons of different imaging technologies. “I went from E-6 to C-41 processing and then later to digital,” he recounts. “Years ago, I went back to analogue and started using 120 film.” With a 6x7 medium format film camera, David began to establish a style that he felt worked perfectly for the documentary subjects he wanted to photograph. “I shot everything on that set-up. I felt it gave me a calmness and an
ability to work on stories I wanted to, such as trophy hunting and wildlife- related topics. It gave me an intimacy I didn’t feel in digital at the time. “I only used 120 film and it worked really well for me. I probably wouldn’t have changed if it wasn’t for Covid. I found myself working on a story in Kenya for National Geographic with four or five hundred rolls of film and absolutely no way to process it because the world had shut down. I then looked for the closest equivalent to medium format film and that, for me, was the GFX System.” FUJIFILM GFX System David’s imaging style – compared to 19th-century daguerreotypes on his website – is heavily linked to that of larger-format images. Brimming with detail, his photos are carefully composed to fill the 6x7 aspect ratio he works in. “I changed to the GFX System and I’ve worked with it ever since. I think it’s my style,” he remarks. “What I like is how the system lets me see everything in 6x7 through the viewfinder. Obviously, I’m capturing the entire frame, but I’m looking at a 6x7 framing. It allows me to draw a sort of virtual square in the air and fit whatever I feel is happening in a given scene into it.” “WHEN I STARTED WORKING, I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO GENERATE INCOME FROM WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPY ”
David Chancellor David is a multi-award winning photographer who focuses on the relationship between humans and the natural world. Website: davidchancellor.com Instagram: @chancellordavid
FUJIFILM Focus Magazine 11
January/February 2026
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