David Abram

Somerset-based photographer and writer David R Abram has spent the past five years capturing images of Britain’s prehistoric monuments from the air, using flying cameras and telescopic poles. Taken in rare, beautiful light, his work reveals forms, symbols and topographical connections often invisible at ground level.

David’s signature pieces are large format composites, made up of hundreds of smaller images stitched together to create prints that retain an astonishing range of tonality and detail. Shot perpendicular to the earth’s surface, they tend towards abstraction, disrupting one’s sense of scale and perspective in order to release what David refers to as the ‘ancestral imprint’ of the monument – the range of emotions that inspired the creation of the original site, whether grief, wonder, humility, pride or (in the case of Iron Age hillforts) fear of annihilation. 

Before taking up drone photography, David pursued a career as an anthropologist, travel author and guide book writer, specializing in India. A collection of his aerial images of prehistoric Britain will be published in September 2022 by Thames & Hudson.