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A camera has always been in David Thurston's hand, from his teenage years to today and he has turned his passion into his living.

David, from Totnes, has travelled to many places on assignments including Argentina, Cuba and Tibet, but he could have remained a writer if he hadn't made the monumental decision in 1985, atΜύ 41, to quit Fleet Street and become a photo-journalist in Hong Kong.Μύ

It is certainly one way of seeing the world and David's got the pictures to prove it.Μύ His shots focus on people and the images make bold statements.

Now after 30 years snapping he has had not one, but two of his photographs accepted at the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition 2008 in London - fulfilling an ambition he's had since he was 18.

Networking is the title of David's Academy photo

It's the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world.

From an entry of more than 10,000, around 1,200 works from unknown and established artists are displayed for more than two months.

The Academy's theme this year is Man Made.

David's picture, Networking, epitomises this with his figure of an electricity cable worker, high up a ladder, attempting to mend the complex wiring system.

He said it was taken right outside his front door when he lived in Thailand: "I shot this picture with a point and shoot camera, which was all I had.

On the other side of the camera, David Thurston.

"And I chose it for the exhibition because it has immediate visual impact."

In fact many of his pictures capture elements of the Orient. The weather extremes and the shabby-chic of people's homes and lifestyles make them appear in sharp contrast to a Western way of life.

David's next project is to have one of his photographs selected by the National Portrait Gallery.

In the mean time though, he's trying to capture the flight of geese on camera. He says he's lucky because he lives close to the River Dart where a number of the birds can be seen migrating back to warmer climes.

But there are times when friends phone him saying they've spotted the birds in the Exe estuary and by the time he's managed to get there they've gone.

David said: "It's a bit like fishing - you never know when you're going to get a picture or not.

"For me on the ground it's a matter of getting a better, better, better picture."

Don't miss out on seeing some of David's work at the Cider Press Centre in Dartington until Friday 8 August 2008 or at the Royal Academy until 17 August.