Press Photographer Journey from Middlesbrough to Kosovo

1) In the mid 1990s, I wrote 500 letters to photographic studios, magazines and newspapers in pursuit of a photography career away from Dumfries and Galloway, which was a tough area for employment back then. It led me to spend two months freelancing in Morecambe before working at a national picture agency in Cardiff. My perseverance eventually paid off when I secured a permanent post with the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough in 1997.

2) In June 1999, I documented the end of the Kosovo War alongside the Green Howards infantry regiment. At one point I was flown in a Lynx helicopter with Major General Richard Dannatt—the newly appointed Commander of British Forces in Kosovo who would later serve as Chief of the General Staff and head of the British Army from 2006 to 2009.

Yorkshire Green Howards photographed in Gornje Village, Kosovo

Milk Rounds to Track Records: My Early Days in Dumfries and Galloway

3) In Summer, 1987 I was a teenager with a holiday delivering milk for Barry at a dairy in Dalbeattie. Not exactly glamorous work, but it paid, and it got me out and about on the milk float every day. On my final day, working solo on a round, I had delivered to everyone and collected in from everyone — bar one. Just the one outstanding payment left on the books, and it was a proper trek: twenty miles round trip. I could easily have left it for Barry to chase up after I’d gone but something in me didn’t want to leave a loose end. So off I went.I was two miles short of the depot, on the way back, when a car parked on a blind corner decided to pull out — straight across into the path of a car coming the other way, full of fishermen up from Blackpool. Head-on. No seatbelts in those days, so it could have been a very different story. Somehow, everyone walked away from it.The courts looked at it afterwards and split the responsibility three ways: the fishermen had been going too fast, the parked car should never have been on a blind corner in the first place, and I — on the milk float — should have found a way to get it to move. So that was my last day on the milk round: one final debt collected, one written-off float, and a story I’ve lived to tell the tale.

4) At Dalbeattie High School, I was 2^nd and 4^th year sports champion. For around 4 years I went to Stewartry Running Club in Castle Douglas and my strong point was sprinting, discus and shot putt (which I believe still hold the school record to this day).

Dalbeattie High School Sports Champion Dave Charnley in 1984

Dave Charnley working at Kibbutz Urim, Israel in 1989

Working the Desert Land: Volunteering at Kibbutz Urim near Beersheva

5) When I was 20 years old, I volunteered at a Kibbutz Urim near Beersheva to work the desert land, taking on a whirlwind of daily chores from washing dishes in the communal kitchen to picking fruit in the orchards. I also had the mammoth task of feeding a massive flock of 60,000+ chickens housed across the agricultural complex. However, my primary and most demanding responsibility was managing the extensive irrigation system, spending long days putting out ‘miles’ of industrial sprinklers to bring vital water to crops.

Project Managed a Major Property Flip in just Six Months

6) In 2016 we moved from our family home of 20 years in Stockton to upscale. We purchased a three bedroom bungalow, then in 2017, I spent all my spare time project managing, working and flipping it into a twice the size dormer bungalow in just 6 months! All the while, I was still working at my photography business and only losing 10% turnover – phew!

House renovations in Teesside, Stockton on Tees

Landscape Gardening to Documenting the Robert Burns Bicentenary

7) My love for gardening goes all the way back to helping my dad (pic) cut the lawn in a massive 3-acre garden, which was a second job for him alongside running the Post Office sorting office in Dalbeattie, Scotland. That passion stuck with me, and in my earlier career, I even operated my own landscaping garden business for a short spell, with my faithful old Ford P100 pickup truck.

Robert Charnley (dad) in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway. Postman and historian

8) In 1996, I was commissioned to document areas of interest for the Robert Burns Bicentenary (need to search archives), marking 200 years since the death of the national bard. For the exhibition, I travelled extensively across Scotland, capturing the vital landscapes and landmarks of his life. My journey took me from his birthplace in Ayrshire, where the humble Alloway cottage shaped his early years, to Edinburgh, where he achieved literary fame among the Enlightenment elite. I followed his footsteps north to Aberdeen and Inverness, tracing his famous 1787 Highland tour that inspired so many traditional verses, and down to the idyllic Ellisland Farm, the very homestead he designed and built on the banks of the River Nith. My journey ultimately concluded in nearby Dumfries, the town where he spent his final years.

Travel photographer Dave Charnley - Tokyo, New York to Vietnam.

Oshino Hakkai, a traditional Japanese village located in the Fuji Five Lakes region right at the foot of Mount Fuji

Across Five Continents: A Lifelong Passion for Global Travel

9) I love to travel, ever since my Mum and Dad took me and my older brother to Canada when I was only 10 years old. I can still feel the mist of water hitting my face looking over the edge into Niagara Falls. Since I was 20 years old, I have travelled all over Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Monaco, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Turkey and I have also seen a lot of the United States and in the last seven years I have been to Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

There are assignments you take, and then there are the ones that take something from you — quietly, permanently. Covering Memorial Day in Hiroshima was one of those. I arrived not knowing quite what to expect. The weight of the place is immediate; you feel it before you understand it. The Japanese Prime Minister was in attendance that day, and the formality of the occasion — the solemn ceremony, the measured pace of everything — gave the morning a kind of stillness that’s hard to describe unless you’ve stood in it. I also attended the evening ceremony where thousands of paper lanterns were set adrift on the river, each one carrying a name, a memory, a wish for peace. Watching that river fill with soft, floating light — after a day so heavy with history — was one of the most quietly powerful things I’ve ever witnessed with the Genbaku Dome framed in the background (Atomic Bomb Dome).

Hiroshima 78th Ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

The Hiroshima Lantern Floating Ceremony (Toro Nagashi) at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Sailing three day experience on the Black Diamond, North Sea near Hartlepool

Battling the North Sea: A Three-Day Winter Sailing Adventure

10) Three Days, One Ocean, and a Christmas Gift That Actually Delivered. Forget socks. Forget another jumper. Last Christmas, Mrs C handed me something with a bit more bite: three days of sailing training out on the North Sea.Day one eased us in gently — calm water, engine doing the work, everyone still finding their sea legs and pretending they knew what a boom was. Nice and civilised. A warm-up, in every sense. Day two was a totally different story. Sails up, engine off, and suddenly we were properly out there — riding the big swell, the boat leaning into it, the sea deciding the schedule instead of us. I took the helm for the best part of three-quarters of an hour, steering us through swells pushing six feet and more, which felt like plenty when you’re the one holding the wheel. It was bitterly cold up top, so at one point I did the sensible thing and ducked below deck to thaw out — phone in hand, feet up, thoroughly pleased with myself. Turns out the rest of the crew had also headed below to the toilet, with the sea had got the better of their stomachs. So there I was, apparently the picture of calm, while everyone else quietly regretted breakfast. Chilled out — or, as it happens, rather warm about it. Three days, a genuine taste of life on the waves, and proof that Mrs C knows exactly the kind of adventure that suits me.

Project Title :Behind the Lens – A photographer’s Journey
Photoshoot Locations : UK (Scotland, Middlesbrough, Stockton, North Sea), Kosovo, Israel, Japan and 30+ countries across five continents.
Blog Details: A diverse portfolio spanning 40 years of imagery. Highlights include embedding with the Green Howards regiment to document the end of the Kosovo War, capturing the Robert Burns Bicentenary across Scotland, and covering the poignant Hiroshima Memorial Day. Also a lifetime of relentless grit, global travel, commercial landscaping, and property renovation.
Delivery : Documentary portfolio featuring national news syndication, conflict photojournalism, historical exhibition prints, and a little bit of my personal life.

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