David Bayles is an accomplished photographer, author, workshop leader, and conservationist. He has studied with renowned photographers such as Ansel Adams and Brett Weston, and has taught and written extensively in the arts for over thirty years.

David Paul Bayles focuses on landscapes where the needs of forests and human pursuits often collide, sometimes coexist and on occasion find harmony. Some of his projects utilize a documentary approach while others use a more contemporary art practice. His deep connection with trees was forged in the mid seventies when he left the suburbs of Los Angeles to work as a logger in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This experience culminated in a spiritual encounter when he narrowly escaped being crushed by a large log.

While attending photo school in Santa Barbara, Bayles became committed to environmentalism. His dual perspectives as both a logger and environmentalist add an authentic and unique approach to his photographic projects. He currently resides in the Coast Range of western Oregon, where he photographs highly efficient industrialized working forests that have supplanted the massive old growth forests.

His photographs have been published in numerous magazines including Orion, Nature, Audubon, Terrain, Commonweal, Outside, and The L.A. Times Sunday Magazine. Public collections include The Portland Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Art Museum, The Harry Ransom Center, and Wildling Museum. His first monograph, Urban Forest, was chosen by The Christian Science Monitor as one of their seven favorite books of 2003. Sap In Their Veins was published with OSU Press in the fall of 2023.

The David Paul Bayles Photographic Archive was established in 2016 at The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley to preserve his entire life's work.