Bringing Devon into focus

I liked Dianne the minute I met her. She is one of life’s smiley people. She is also a highly talented, decorated photographer who has captured beautiful portraits of our landscape and community through her lens...

Born in Hammersmith, Dianne swapped the urban neighbourhood for a more rural playground when her parents moved to Twyford, Berkshire when she was eleven. After marrying, she and her husband took holidays in Devon and immediately felt at home, returning year on year to explore Dartmoor and its surrounding towns and villages. Enjoying the community spirit of Tavistock, they decided to take the plunge, and relocated in 2015. They both continued to commute, Dianne to her job as a cargo agent for Virgin Atlantic, a role she had held for almost twenty years. After a few months, she accepted a redundancy package from Virgin and began working at White Stuff in Tavistock, rising to assistant manager.

Eight years ago, Dianne began posting images from her phone onto Blipfoto, an online photo journal where anyone can upload one photo per day. She received some fantastic feedback and was soon hooked. Inspired to improve she invested in a Nikon beginners’ camera, and before long a series of her abstract photographs were published in the national magazine Practical Photography. In 2016 she entered the prestigious Countryfile calendar competition and to her absolute delight and amazement, her image of a woodland in the mist was selected. This led to a position on the long list panel of judges for three years - a role which she found both inspirational and great fun. She has since had images published in a range of notable magazines including Dartmoor Magazine in which she was a featured photographer in 2018 with a cover image of Greyface Dartmoor Sheep - a dream come true.

Self-taught via books, magazines and an occasional workshop, her hobby had become something she really wanted to invest in, so with the support of family she took a three-month hiatus from her job and took up the challenge of photographing ‘People of Dartmoor’, a collection of black and white images for exhibition in Home Farm Cafe and Gallery near Bovey Tracey. This led to a further exhibition of local people in the Princetown Visitor Centre. She spent time with farriers, thatchers, farmers, vets, volunteers and a vicar, in the pursuit of capturing natural photographs of a working community. This venture really pushed her out of her comfort zone but she loved every minute and her portraits received universal acclaim.

Dianne’s first love was always the landscape, flora and fauna and she began a project in 2015 capturing Dartmoor throughout the year. She had a book published of her images and has done so every year since, just for herself. She is considering a wider publication in 2025 that will cover ten years of beautiful Dartmoor photographs, but is aware that high quality photography prints come at an expensive retail price.

Dianne began volunteering at Wildside, a private garden in Buckland Monachorum which occasionally opens to visitors. Keith Wiley the owner, a keen photographer himself was impressed with Dianne’s Dartmoor images and gave Dianne permission to capture scenes from his garden, with a view to creating a beautiful companion book showcasing the garden throughout the year. It’s a project she is relishing, volunteering for a morning of weeding, then spending the afternoon capturing the ever-changing mood of the garden with the turn of the seasons. In 2021 Dianne entered the RHS photographic competition and was selected for an exhibition in the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square. Her portfolio of dark autumnal scenes taken at RHS Rosemoor won a bronze medal and a grand day out to London was had.

Dianne now enjoys working for three days a week in the Devon Air Ambulance charity shop in Tavistock, and tries to fit in time with family, dog and her camera around that. She is very self-effacing and despite her natural talent and huge successes, feels she is still an amateur with so much more to learn. Dianne fell in love with Devon a long time ago and does not take it for granted. She feels fortunate to live in this magical place amongst many people who have offered support, friendship and encouragement. She is a good human; warm, enthusiastic and passionate about the moor, its people and traditions, creating a beautiful library of our home at a point in time which will be celebrated for years to come.

By Nichola Williams

You can find more details about Dianne’s work at diannejgilesphotography.co.uk orfacebook.com/diannejaynegiles

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