Born to a Korean mother (a businesswoman) and an English father (a planning engineer in Oil & Gas), David Sheldrick grew up in South West London alongside his four siblings. Despite attending Sutton Grammar School as a teenager, Sheldrick frequently traveled between England and Korea, shaping his multicultural upbringing.
From an early age, Sheldrick demonstrated a natural artistic talent. He would spend hours drawing on enormous sheets of paper provided by his father, who brought home old engineering blueprints of ships from his work at the Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan. These blueprints, used in designing some of the world’s largest vessels, became Sheldrick’s first canvases.
During his years at Sutton Grammar, Sheldrick’s artistic abilities were widely recognized. His paintings and drawings were regularly exhibited at local institutions, and he was often invited to perform live demonstrations during school open evenings, showcasing his skills to prospective students and their families.
At the age of 16, Sheldrick lived independently as his father and mother had to move to South Korea for work, he supported himself by working at John Lewis, where he sold luxury pens. After completing his studies, he moved to Seoul, South Korea, to study Korean language at Yonsei University. His time in Seoul became one of the most transformative periods of his life. He began working at a photography studio managed by his aunt, where he learned the art of retouching and developed an interest in studio photography. This exposure inspired him to take up photography himself, and he quickly gained recognition for his distinctive visual style.
At 19, Sheldrick’s career took a major leap when he was selected as one of the faces of United Colors of Benetton’s global campaign. The opportunity took him to New York City, where he was photographed by renowned British photographer Josh Olins. This experience propelled Sheldrick into the fashion industry. Back in Seoul, he established himself as a sought-after photographer, collaborating with leading publications and brands such as Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, and Burberry. His work and appearances at industry events solidified his reputation in the Asian fashion scene.
At 21, Sheldrick returned to the UK to further his career as a fashion photographer and deepen his artistic practice. Determined to attend the BA (Hons) Fashion Photography course at the London College of Fashion, he faced rejection twice before finally being accepted on his third attempt. During this period, he worked at Nokia’s customer service department to save money for studio rentals, which he used to build his portfolio.
Once admitted, Sheldrick thrived at London College of Fashion. He won multiple awards for his photographic work both within the university and externally, gaining sponsorship from Adobe. He delivered talks and competed in live creative competitions with some of the UK’s most talented design students. Shortly after graduating, Sheldrick won the prestigious GenNEXT award from Broncolor lighting systems in Switzerland, receiving $25,000 worth of equipment.
With financial support from his father, Sheldrick rented a modest office space in Putney, transforming it into a small photography studio. To cover the rent, he listed the space for low-cost hourly rentals through a simple website. Within a year, his business expanded to include three studios, collectively known as Putney Studios. After the property was redeveloped, Sheldrick relocated to Brixton, establishing two more studios, and eventually moved to Wimbledon, where he currently operates three studios under the name PS Spaces. The studios now serve up to 2,000 creative professionals annually.
Throughout his career, Sheldrick maintained a strong commercial portfolio, working with global brands and institutions such as London Fashion Week, Vogue, British GQ, American GQ, and Marriott International. He also photographed celebrities including Sam Smith, Dua Lipa, Pink, Tyson Fury, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Shawn Mendes, and Jorja Smith.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 had a profound impact on Sheldrick’s career. With most of his work and studio clients disappearing almost overnight, Sheldrick faced significant challenges. During this time, his father-in-law contracted COVID-19 and passed away in Berlin. While quarantining in his father-in-law’s apartment, Sheldrick discovered AI art through a short YouTube tutorial on using a Google Colab script for VQGAN. This discovery marked the beginning of a new artistic journey.
Over the next three years, Sheldrick immersed himself in AI art, dedicating 12–16 hours a day to mastering the medium. He founded PS Labs, a studio specialising in AI-generated content for commercials. His early clients included Standard Chartered Bank, Mercedes-Benz, Coca-Cola, and VUSE, for whom he created content primarily for events.
By 2023, Sheldrick shifted his focus to the emerging post-photographic movement. Recognizing its potential, he partnered with The Fellowship, a prominent curator in the space. At Paris Photo 2023, he met curator Alejandro Cartagena, leading to their collaboration on Sheldrick’s genesis collection, Mongsangga—a 16-piece animation series created using Animate Diff and Stable Diffusion. This was followed by Morning Calm, a 100-piece still collection featured in The Fellowship’s Post-Photographic Perspectives III exhibition, which sold out instantly during a private sale.
Sheldrick continued producing acclaimed works, including a 25-piece collection titled Anthropocene with Tender Art, released in October 2024. Meanwhile, he began developing Empire, a project exploring human history through photography. Starting in early 2024, Sheldrick sourced over 35,000 vernacular photography slides from secondhand marketplaces, spanning the 1940s to 2010. After months of cleaning, digitizing, and classifying the slides, he used the dataset to create foundational elements for Empire, including checkpoint fine-tunings, LORAs, and style-transferring methods.
Collaborating closely with Cartagena, Sheldrick produced a body of work that examines humanity’s journey through the combined lenses of photography and AI.
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