David Smithson was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, in 1968. At 18 he attended the prestigious Ecole Nationale de la Photographie (ENP) in Arles, France, and later studied documentary photography at Nottingham Polytechnic until 1990. He freelanced as a documentary photographer for three years in India and Sri Lanka followed by four years of teaching in Indonesia, the Czech Republic and Argentina. David worked as a medical photographer and information designer at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff from 1997 to 2004 and gained an MSc (Distinction) in Medical Illustration in 2001. In 2004 David returned full-time to reportage photography and in 2006 began to write short stories to accompany his images. David's images and writing have been published in The Financial Times Magazine, Geographical, Le Monde, Maxim, FHM, The Jakarta Globe, The British Journal of Photography, Ag, Black and White Photography, Garuda Magazine and more.