David Constantine will talk about his photographic journey, touching on his life changing injury and how the disadvantages led to a different path in photography. 

‘When I started to photograph more seriously during my teens, I was looking for my niche. However, my focus was brought into sharp detail when, following a diving injury in 1982, aged 21, I was left paralysed from the shoulders down, unable to grip or pick up my camera. I decided to give up photography as just another one of those things I was going to have to accept in my new life as a quadriplegic wheelchair user. What I hadn’t counted on was I couldn’t just give up ‘seeing’ that easily.‘ – David Constantine MBE

David has spent his career in the international humanitarian sector. In 1991 after graduating from the Royal College of Art in Design, he co-founded Motivation, a non-profit international NGO to design and provide appropriate wheelchairs in low-income countries.

David has used his image making to document Motivation’s work through case studies and storytelling of the people he worked with around the world, trying to change the ‘narrative look’ of the portrayal of disabled people in photography. His work has enabled him to travel extensively and also follow his passion of environmental portraiture and street work.

Motivation has worked closely with some of the major development and humanitarian response organisations worldwide, including the World Health Organisation and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Motivation’s range of products have been used in over 150 countries across Asia, Africa, Central America and Eastern Europe.

In 2021 after 31 years, David stepped down from Motivation. He is now the President of the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics and sits on a number of other international boards in the humanitarian sector. He continues to travel and photograph.

This event is part of our ongoing series sponsored by WEX Photo Video.