Sam Davis

The caving photographer will be shining a light on his passion at The Photography Show. Niall Hampton gets a deep dive into the subject

Cave photography calls for a varied range of skills, with stamina, endurance and an ability to operate in confined spaces near the top of the list. As it's a subject many of us will be in the dark about, what could be better than taking a deep dive into the discipline from a leading practitioner? Exploration and adventure photographer Sam Davis is based in Powys in Wales and has been caving since childhood. A love of the great outdoors and hunger for travel led him to become a photographer and two of his passions will take centre stage at The Photography & Video Show this month...

What will you be covering in your talk?

My talk is called 'Illuminating the Underworld' and it will be about cave photography - taking photos underground in natural passageways and also in mines or anywhere there's no light and where some unusual access equipment is required to get there.

What has your photography journey been to date?

I've always been a big traveller, ever since I went on holidays with my parents - expeditions to caves in Spain and Slovenia and places like that. I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and was surrounded by caves, so they were a big part of my life. When I graduated from university, I went backpacking around the world and that's when my photography started getting better.

I was caving less back then but gradually picked it up again over the past few years, and have taken my acquired photography skills underground - starting to experiment and see what I could produce.

Did any photographers or other influences inspire you when you were getting started?

Absolutely - a photographer called Jerry Wooldridge, who was a family friend. He passed away last year and was a pioneer in the underground photography world.