Just before being interviewed, David was wandering around to “feel North Shieldsy”. Stepping off the Metro, he immediately saw three or four different people he knew. You can’t get more Shields than that. The Newcastle-based photographer, who is most known for documenting the city’s diverse communities and subcultures under the pseudonym Nostalgia Kid, has recently reconnected with his roots through the I Love North Shields Photography Collective. David sat down with us to talk about this as well as his work with the NewBridge Project, and reflect on how the values he grew up with continue to inform his approach to life and art.
Coming Home to North Shields
David was born in Rosebury Avenue, North Shields: “At the bottom of the street there used to be a farm. My dad’s stories about growing up there were like a ‘Boy’s Own’ adventure. There was an old double-decker bus that became a gang hut for him and his mates. Once one of them fell into a trough and was bitten by a pig!” David’s dad was a talented footballer, playing for the county: “He had been good enough to try out for Nottingham Forest. When he got me a trial at East End Boys’ club, where he had played as a youth, they had great expectations!” He was also into cricket and horse racing: “I used to wait for him to get off the 306 from work where Tynemouth Pool is now. He would put me on his shoulders and call it the ‘Scobie Breasley’ after the champion jockey.” David’s family moved to Whitley Bay but he returned regularly to North Shields to visit his relatives: “Coming back was always like an adventure. It’s never left me.” David shares how the town gives him a sense of belonging: “I’ve always been so proud of it. Cut me in half and you’ll find it written all the way down like Blackpool Rock. If you were trying to write an aesthetically pleasing name for a town, you couldn’t do better than ‘North Shields’.”
Punk, Music and Finding a Creative Life
David’s creative mind is always analysing how things look – he breaks off to marvel at the old snooker room where we are conducting the interview: “I’m imagining 100,000 photographs in here – the light, the colours, the snooker tables!” He began to appreciate art at a young age, getting into punk music, culture and film in his teens. Although not yet practising behind the camera himself, David was a huge fan of the photographer Pennie Smith, who worked for the NME and went on tour with The Clash, her black-and-white photo of Paul Simonon smashing his guitar on stage in New York City becoming their famous ‘London Calling’ album cover: “Pennie captured The Clash in their element. She was a big influence on me but at the time I didn’t know it. I was taking in the compositions and the lighting, building up a memory bank.” When he left school, David’s Dad arranged an interview for him for an apprenticeship at the UBU furniture factory where he worked as an upholsterer: “At the interview when they asked where I saw myself in the future, I said I wanted to be a social worker or an artist – I don’t know why! I realised I wanted to do something creative but I didn’t think I could because of where I was from. But I was starting to feel like there was more to life than working in a factory.”
It’s no surprise that David wanted to be a social worker, his photography revealing a social conscience as well as an artistic eye. He is passionate about representing working-class people and underrepresented communities. He has no time for bigotry, racism or sexism. The strong women he admired growing up were paving the way for equality and diversity – punk-rock singers Siouxsie Sioux and Viv Albertine, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and photographer Caroline Coon, who also managed The Clash: “They were all powerful women who took no crap! I’ve always cared about women’s rights, especially now I have a wife and two daughters.” David’s mother was also a strong role model: “Although limited by the conventions of society when she was younger, she was ahead of her time. She always had a couple of jobs here and there and ended up working her way up from a dishwasher to head cook at Whitley Bay High School.”
Becoming Nostalgia Kid
For David himself, it was difficult to find his place in the working world: “It took a while to get work going – I had ‘highfalutin’ ideas about music and everything. I joined a band. I was doing everything I could to NOT get a job. I was a rebel – I even had a leather jacket!” David eventually became a painter and decorator and settled down to have a family. It was not until his children had grown up that he began pursuing photography, or “faffing around with my iPhone” as he modestly puts it. The punk DIY ethic of his youth remains: “I will get on that hill and die for that attitude. I’m from North Shields. Make the best of what you’ve got, be creative with the tools you have. I found my phone was as good as anything.” Instagram was just starting and David recalls being one of the first to join: “I just used to follow the people that Instagram followed.” As the platform grew, so did David’s body of work and he enjoyed making connections to other photographers online. One day, he entered the Lumix UK ‘Capture’ photography competition, where you had to take a shot of your city and tag them in it: “London, Paris, New York… Newcastle! I thought I could make my city just as vital as any of those places.” He ended up winning the Lumix camera he still uses today.
Photographing People, Not Just Places
In 2020 David became involved in Create/Disrupt, an artist development programme for aspiring creatives who have not attended university. He began compiling The Newcastle Project, a photography series celebrating the people and places that make the city what it is today. The collection is a love letter to Newcastle, conveying everything from the vibrancy of music gigs and the urgency of street protests to the quiet beauty of architecture and public transport. Intimate, insightful portraits of individuals reflect David’s relaxed, collaborative approach: “I’m not trying to catch anyone out. I want to make people feel good and comfortable. I will talk to someone for about an hour before getting the camera out. They bring their talent and you bring yours and meeting in the middle is where the magic happens. If the picture resonates, it will speak about the people and tell a story.”
Despite his online presence, meeting people in person is most important for David: “It’s about the connection. It’s the moment we’re together – like this, now. It’s an experience, a moment.” The moments in time captured by the aptly named Nostalgia Kid are often accompanied by words – either informative, enigmatic or explicitly political: “If you’re a social photographer, a documentary photographer, you can let people make their own minds up, but I like being political. I have no time for division, I refuse to turn a blind eye. My dad was a working-class man from North Shields. He taught me his ethics, how to be a working-class man myself. Poorer people are being exploited by the super-rich. The divide is becoming greater – unemployment, homelessness. I can’t stand the AI ‘tech bros’. That’s such a cuddly term. They might as well be called fascists.” David’s ethos of respect for all comes across in his range of subjects: “I respect people for what they do. I’m just as excited about photographing a care worker as I am when shooting a pop star.”
Music Through the Lens
He cannot deny, though, that a particularly special moment came about recently when he had the opportunity to photograph one of his idols, filmmaker and musician Don Letts, who first came to prominence as the videographer for The Clash: “He did a DJ set in Zerox and he let us take photos. It was unbelievable. I always have in my mind how I’m going to take the photo – I visualise it beforehand. He posed by the window, exactly how I had imagined.” David has had a long-term collaboration with Geordie jazz band, Knats. They used one of his photos on the cover of their album, ‘A Great Day in Newcastle’, which has been shortlisted for the 2026 Mercury Prize. For the second time running, the prestigious award ceremony will be held at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on 22nd October. The following night, Knats will be appear at King Street CIU Social Club in North Shields, with David documenting, of course.
Photography, Community and Coming Full Circle
For all these exciting opportunities, David is not bothered about fame or followers: “I’d be just as happy to have 20 people from North Shields following me on Instagram. You can’t be beholden to an app. It’s great for connecting people but you need to go back to a physical presence. Meeting up, making zines, that’s what it’s all about.” David is currently leading the NewBridge Archive Project with fellow photographer Phyllis Christopher, documenting the people working in and around the NewBridge Project in Shieldfield – an active, artist-led initiative providing space for creative practice and community activities: “They’re really embedded in the community. There’s an exhibition space, a cinema, a library, a cafe and a bookshop with zines and books made by locals. Phyllis is a fantastic photographer. Hopefully we’re going to exhibit together. Getting people together is totally our thing.”
Community involvement is also why David loves working with the I Love North Shields Photography Collective, as well as the fact it has brought him back to his roots: “ILNS feels like a real community – always moving forward, looking for the next way to connect people. We’re all just looking for a tangible experience, bringing people together in real time, in real life – photo walks, exhibitions and events, working with schools.” David was so impressed by the students of Norham High School joining the photo walks that he visited the school to see more of their work. “I’ve been knocked out by their talent. I just hope they find opportunities to continue being creative after they leave school.” After everything he has achieved coming from a similar background, hopefully David can be a positive creative role model and inspire them to follow their dreams: “It’s a full-circle moment for me, it’s like coming home.”
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