David Sacks has been a professional photographer for over 20 years, has won dozens of awards and been published in over 50 national and international magazines. He was the Nikon/PDN World in Focus Grand Prize Winner in 2007, and has worked in 33 countries…here’s how he got there:
Eighth grade was full of ups and downs for David Sacks. Up because he got his first girlfriend that year. Down because her name was Buffy. Up because she kissed him. Down because it happened to be the day that he got braces on his teeth. Up because she had braces, too. Down because she abruptly dumped him the following month. Up because he was given a used 35mm camera for his birthday.
With no girlfriend around to lock braces with, David embraced photography. He photographed neighborhood cats, flowers, bugs, relatives, and the family dog. Living near Philadelphia at age 13, any money he made from mowing lawns or shoveling snow went towards one of two things: film or processing.
While attending Lehigh University in 1988, he was thinking about going to grad school for architecture in Hawaii when a friend with dreads and sandals suggested he take a photography course to fulfill a necessary elective. “Dude,” he said, “you have to take a photo class! It’s awesome! There are no tests or papers to write, you just take pictures, dude!”
David followed his friend’s brilliant advice and watched his architecture grades begin to slide as he spent days and nights in the darkroom when he wasn’t out shooting. He just couldn’t help it. Photography was all that he wanted to do with his time.
Thanks to his wise and usually shoeless photography professor, Doug Mason, David decided to pursue a career in photography immediately after graduation and moved to New York City in 1992.
Since then he has shot advertising campaigns for Merck Pharmaceuticals, Bank of America, GlaxoSmithKline, Delta Airlines, TD Bank, Hard Rock Café, Epson, and many others.
David is widely regarded as a terrible dancer, but loves to photograph dancers. A recent personal project studied the relationship between ballet and hip-hop.
He has also used photography as a means to explore other subcultures such as roller derby, competitive bearding, mime, Goth, and the Coney Island Sideshow.
He is also deeply committed to working with international philanthropic organizations such as Amnesty International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Recent assignments have been diverse, from photographing Emmitt Smith in Dallas, Kelly Ripa in NYC, and Jennie Garth in LA, to orphans in Haiti and Afghanistan for non-profit organizations.