David Thurston

David Thurston grew up in Devon and his first job was with the Western Morning News. He went on to Fleet Street, but spent the large part of his working life in Asia working as a photojournalist and editor for a regional magazine publisher.

Returning home five years ago, he was happy to turn his camera away from people – "and, as often as not, their troubles'' – and point it towards "the timeless, unconcerned beauty of granite and grass, leaf and feather, ripple and rain."

His work stays close to the River Dart, "a mere drip alongside the Yangtze or the Mekong, but so beautiful as it hurries down off the moor to mingle with the sea". Elsewhere, rivers are often considered holy. "In that case, the Dart is divine."

David has sold pictures to publications all over the world and exhibited in Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Bristol and Totnes. In 2008 he was honoured to have two works selected for the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson's 11 years ago but his childhood passion for photography continues undiminished and he still tries not to let a day pass without making a picture. "I am lucky – from where I stand the grass is greenest right under my feet."