David King

At the age of four, so I am told, I discovered my parents' collection of Charles Addam's hardbound cartoon books - the chronicles of his work for The New Yorker magazine, and starting point for the later television series and motion pictures "˜The Addams Family.'

I read these books over and over and eventually became quite a bore on the subject of Gomez and Morticia and Wednesday and Pugsley, all by the age of six. The imagery and tone, dark and sarcastic, morbid yet socially aware, has had for good or ill an abiding and fundamental impact on my view of life...I am a fencer, though I do not tango...and my work as an artist. It is my lens.

Photography forms the foundation of my work. I love the act of "˜finding the shot', which led me into a 20+ year career in film and television. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to study at university under Roman Polanski and Lindsay Anderson, among others, learning the tricks and brilliant insights of their craft.

This, of course, forced upon me the importance of not only the image, but of the story and the telling of it. As a writer as well as an artist, I revere the visual storytelling of Bulgakov and read "˜The Master and Margarita' once a year.

And this is how my w...