Polly Samson has been documenting live shows from her unique viewpoint for over 20 years, and released her sixth book of photography, Luck and Strange Studio/Live, last year.
Offering intimate insights into the creative process of her husband, David Gilmour, as well as their longstanding artistic partnership, the book also provides material for Samson’s inaugural show with Leica at its London gallery.
Light is key to Samson’s work, whether candlelight casting a flickering glow on the Pink Floyd legend as he rehearses in his studio, or from the full moon overhead as he and Samson, along with their two dogs, reflected in a large mirror placed in a mist-shrouded field. Then there’s the light and dark playing across a close-up of Gilmour’s hands, folded gently on a table instead of wielding a guitar.
As the critically acclaimed author behind novels such as The Kindness (2015) and A Theatre for Dreamers (2025), Samson brings her narrative voice to her work in photography, prompting the viewer to ask questions about the stories surrounding each of her subjects.
She tells The Independent about her process and her many sources of inspiration.
How does your novel-writing inform your photography?
It’s usually the other way around but if it does, it’s probably some of my more set up pictures, like the one of David walking between giant inflatable balls and silver birches in the mist. I’m glad to see it pleasingly large in the exhibition at Leica. It’s rare that I can see a picture in my imagination and then make it a photograph. Photography has often been in service to my writing life, however. For example, my most recent novel, A Theatre for Dreamers, was largely informed and inspired by a collection of James Burke’s photographs of the Bohemian community on the Greek island of Hydra in1960. I had them pinned up all around me while I was writing along with others that I’d taken there myself in all weathers, to remind myself of places and views and things like what’s flowering there and when.
Which of your photographs surprised you the most after you’ve taken it?
Of the ones in the exhibition, I’d say the double exposures of David [Gilmour] and [late keyboard player and Pink Floyd co-founder] Rick Wright. I took them in 2005 at David’s studio houseboat Astoria. They are reading the lyrics to The Blue and trying out where the harmonies should be. I can remember it so clearly because I had messed up loading the film and it was winding on half a frame at a time. I kept shooting and inwardly cursing. I had never thought to look at the contacts until I was preparing for the exhibition and thought how interesting it would be to print the strip.
What is your favourite photograph that you’ve taken of your husband David Gilmour?
There’s a photograph of his hands in the exhibition that I like.
One of your most affecting and personal images is a portrait with your husband and dogs taken in a small mirror outside. What was the inspiration behind taking the portrait in this way?
This was another of the photographs that I saw in my mind’s eye first. I found an old mirror and propped it among some silver birches above a river and waited for the full moon. Eventually I cheated the rising mist by lighting a couple of fires of leaves and twigs. I started with a selfie and the next night did the double portrait with David and the dogs.
What is the secret to a successful creative marriage?
I imagine the most important thing is for each to actually enjoy the work of the other.
What is the most memorable concert you have photographed?
When David’s 2024 Luck and Strange tour came to an end I felt I was just reaching my stride as a live photographer and had an itch to do more. I was very lucky that Paul McCartney allowed me to photograph his show at the O2 shortly afterwards.
How different is the experience of being a photographer at someone else’s show?
When I’m photographing David I’m right up close, often somewhere on stage. I don’t want to be seen by the audience so I have various hides, curled up behind speaker cabinets or sitting behind a riser and I have short cuts and routes from one side of the stage to the other. Unlike when I’m shooting David’s show, I didn’t know any of the cues so Paul’s was a bit too exhilarating at times, especially when enormous flames erupted beside me. The shot I like is a moment of extreme pyro when I think Paul saw me and stuck his fingers in his ears.
How comfortable are you in front of the camera yourself?
Not at all comfortable having my photograph taken by anyone else, though I do occasionally look around for shiny surfaces to Hitchcock-myself into a photograph of something or someone else. I no longer know how it would feel to walk into a room or down a street without my camera.
You take photographs around your home in West Sussex, what inspires you about the landscape?
We live surrounded by water meadows and it’s noticeable how much more they flood now than when we moved here 32 years ago. Flooded fields are, however, lovely to photograph. The changing light and mood, the reflections, trees up to their waists, extraordinary mists.
You said an image of your daughter playing the harp was inspired by rewatching [1975 film] Barry Lyndon. What other cultural references impact your visual style?
The photograph you mention is part of a project called 64 Candles that I did to keep things interesting and difficult for myself by lighting the recording studio entirely by candlelight.
There’s another in the exhibition, also of Romany, that comes to mind. It’s the day she filmed the video for “Between Two Points” with Gavin Elder on the shore of the Thames at Hammersmith. The photographer Misha Pedan saw my picture and said that it made him think of Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. It was on my mind around the time Misha died and when a local canal lock flooded it reminded me strongly of a scene from Stalker. I found a still I liked a lot with a big black dog. As it happens, our dog Wesley bears a striking resemblance to the dog in the film and we took the boat so that David didn’t have to get wet in the canal while I took it.
Which photographer do you most admire?
So many! I love Jill Furmanovsky’s rock and roll pictures, and there’s a photographer called Alexander Bronfer who captures the atmosphere and mood of a place in ways that I find incredibly beautiful. My all-time photography crush is Saul Leiter.
How much does chance play in getting the right image?
A huge amount at the beginning of a tour when it’s just “snap snap snap”, but after a few nights of looking at what I’ve shot already I can start to be more deliberate and work out what I’m trying to get and then how to get it without annoying things like microphones and things on stands getting in the way.
Why black and white over colour?
I shot only black and white film at the beginning of the Luck and Strange project. I think I wanted to sharpen up before the concerts and so made it as hard for myself as possible. Then I thought I’d keep it black and white for the studio shots because I had been given a Leica Monochrom digital camera and I liked the results so much. Once we were on tour I changed to colour for Live but stuck to the [Leica M] Monochrom camera for backstage. It felt less-intrusive somehow to not be shooting people in their dressing rooms in full glorious colour.
How long has it taken you to get to this level in photography?
I’ve been lucky to know photographers who have encouraged me but it seems the only way I can ever learn anything is by doing it. When David toured in 2006 and I nepotistically got the job of tour photographer, I was using my first film Leica (so everything manual) and I ended up shooting 10,000 pictures, [which was] a massive learning process done on the hoof.
Is photography like for most artists an obsession that you cannot imagine not being in your life?
Yes, I can’t imagine a day without a camera. If I’m ever to write another novel, however, I will need to limit myself. I think it’s hard to create an inner world and imaginary characters while looking outwards at the real world through a lens.
Is there a day when you don’t take pictures?
No, not for years.
What is the secret to making memorable images?
Light.
Are we now in a world where everyone at best is a portraitist or image-maker... and worst, everyone is a paparazzi?
Yes, and I think it’s a great plus for mobile phones that everyone now has a camera in their pocket.
If we could give you one gift, one original photographic image, which would it be?
I would like a Lee Miller self-printed, self-portrait that was recently shown at The Tate, please. I have a print from her archive but it’s not the same as it includes her head, whereas the one she printed, and that was in the exhibition, is only a torso so it looks like a statue, which I think must’ve been her intention.
Polly Samson’s show 'Between This Breath and Then' is at the Leica Gallery London until 7 May 2026; her book ‘David Gilmour Luck and Strange Studio/Live’ is out now, published by Thames & Hudson.
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