David left school at the age of 16 to pursue a career in photography.  Within a year he was working regularly for small London based magazines and at the age of eighteen he began working for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. David went on to develop strong working relationships with most of the major UK magazines.

In 1995 David began photographing the UK Conservative Party.  He continued to photograph the membership at all levels and document the turmoil and decline of the party until 2001.  This work was published in a book entitled Tory Story and released on the eve of the 2001 general election.

Modell has shot many major advertising campaigns for some of the worlds leading companies.  These have included: Hugo Boss, IBM-Lotus, National Savings , Arthur Andersen, IBM, AT&T and Ford.

In 2000 David started making short political TV documentaries for Channel Four News. These films won several awards, including A Rory Peck award and an RTS Journalism award.

In 2002 David made his first full-length documentary for Channel Four TV. Young, Nazi and Proud was a exploration of the motivation and mind-set of a leading British National Party activist; this film achieved remarkable critical acclaim and won three major awards including a BAFTA for best current affairs programme of the year.

In 2004 David made a documentary called Keep Them Out an examination of a community’s response to the prospect of an accommodation centre for asylum seekers being built in their town.  Again, this programme received considerable critical acclaim- The Observer called it “Brilliant”.

In 2005 David made a film called Being Pamela, broadcast on Channel Four in June.  This was a film profile of a woman suffering Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder) and took two years to make.

Shortly before transmission, Channel Four fought off an injunction from the authorities to prevent the film's broadcast. In what was considered a landmark ruling the Judge dismissed the injunction, describing the film as: “a responsible piece of serious documentary film, not a cheap piece of sensational journalism. The purpose of the film is education, not entertainment. It raises issues of public importance. It is, on the face of it, a valuable contribution to an important public debate.”

Mad About Animals was a year long exploration of the animal rights movement. This was broadcast in May 2006. At the end of 2006 David made a series of short films for Channel 4 called War Torn: Stories of Separation. These short films, using just stills and interview to explore loss suffered by the families of British soldiers who had fought in Iraq again achieved significant critical acclaim. They won an RTS journalism award and have been nominated for two BAFTAs.

The films can be watched online at www.channel4.com/wartorn

David continues to divide his time between photography and documentary filmmaking.

if you would like to buy a print or require more information about any of the images on this site you can email David at picinfo@davidmodell.com