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‘Is’: Ecstasies I-XXII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2026

David Williams
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Summary

Darkness and shadow, however, are the very substance of the work, the state of mind that dictates the terms of the ‘fascination’, that fixes the conditions for seeing. This seems to be the axis of Williams’ idea – ultimately the envelope of shadow, the world of closure is a source of inspiration.

The points of light and the recurring signs and symbols, with their vague reference to archetypes, are the notes of harmony and discord in a musical pattern that resolves unease into calm assurance.

David Chandler

Williams has been described as the first blues photographer and I can think of no better description.

These photographs have a compulsive bitter sweetness, at one stage dark and sombre, at the other offering a chink of hope. They directly mirror a common experience which explores the very fabric of life.

Murray Johnston

Following the St Margaret's project I embarked on various pieces of commercial work and also spent several months undertaking an extended art commission celebrating 350 years of the Scottish Post Office (1985). Keen to go on a year-long tour of the USA involving formal photographic portraiture comparing / contrasting subjects from differing socio-economic backgrounds, I managed to secure the requisite funding but fell ill with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Any kind of travel became out of the question. Partially bedridden, I still had an overwhelming desire to make work and intermittently mustered the energy to produce images in and around the immediate area where I lived. It would be a considerable understatement to refer to this work as ‘curiously driven’.

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Dreaming Difference , pp. 60 - 71
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
First published in: 2026

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