David is a film-maker, artist, art collector and curator.

David takes pictures of his life.  He started taking pictures at the age of 8 at sleep away camp.  There, with a Kodak Instamatic and flash cubes, he began to document the world around him.  He shoots digitally now and loves the flexibility of the medium.  He still owns a few film cameras and just might find himself shooting with them again!

He has been an internationally recognized collector of contemporary and vintage photographic works for over twenty five years.  Numerous publications, including Art and Antiques and the Art Market Guide, have named David as a top-100 American collector. In 2008, Worth Magazine profiled his collecting habits.  In 2007, the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired and was gifted a portion of his surrealist and modernist photography collection.   The exhibition, Forbidden Games; Surrealist and Modernist Photography, The David Raymond Collection opened in the fall of 2014-2015 at the CMA and a catalogue was co-published by the CMA and Yale University Press.  From 2000-2004, he served as an advisor to the Getty Museum and helped them put together their Dorothea Lange and Manuel Alvarez Bravo collections. In 2006, he served as the Artistic Director for Magnum Photo's Paris Photo presence. He was a portfolio reviewer and lecturer at the 2008 Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, Fotofest 2010 and 2012 in Houston and the MIA fair in Milan in 2013.

David creates art in addition to collecting and supporting it.  He is both a photographer and a video maker and his video works have been shown in New York, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles and Miami.  In 2011, a show of his conceptual work, Other People's Pictures was exhibited at the Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires and in 2014 at the Bardo Art Center at Western Carolina University.

In addition, David has lectured around the world on the subjects of collecting and the art market. He has appeared at the Ministry of Culture in Paris, Art Miami, Lincoln Center, the Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, Fotofocus in Cincinnati, Paris Photo, The Light Factory and various other venues. In June 2016, he gave a lecture on surrealist photography and film at the new Black Mountain School. 

A sampling of film’s that David executive produced include; Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America, directed by Tony Stone, premiered at the 2007 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and won the jury prize at the 2007 Leeds Film Festival.  It was greeted with widespread critical acclaim upon it's theatrical release and has become a cult classic.  The Toe Tactic, directed by Emily Hubley was greeted with such enthusiasm by the Museum of Modern Art that they not only asked to have their name on the film, but they also purchased a print for their permanent collection.  Graceland, directed by Ron Morales, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2012 and was distributed theatrically in the United States in the spring of 2013.  Two films by Andrew Dosunmu, Restless City(2011) and Mother of George (2013), premiered at Sundance and both were distributed theatrically.

In 2012 he directed, wrote and produced his first short, The Leaf about an encounter he had on a New York street.  In 2021, he wrote, directed and produced, The Last Letter Writer with Trong Nguyen. He co-produced the documentary, The Last Ecstatic Days (2023).

David was a founding board member of Performa, which produces New York's performance art biennial and he is on the advisory board for the Manuel Alvarez Bravo Foundation.

He also is very interested in the healing arts and has studied numerous healing modalities including becoming a Reiki master.

He is looking for a good group of musicians to make some music with him in the Asheville, North Carolina area focusing on Blues, R&B and soul.  He sings…

FILMOGRAPHY

Executive Producer:

The Big Bad Swim: 2006, directed by Ishai Setton

Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America: 2008, directed by Tony Stone

The Toe Tactic: 2008: directed by Emily Hubley

Restless City, 2011: directed by Andrew Dosumnu

Graceland, 2012: directed by Ron Morales

Mother of George: 2013, directed by Andrew Dosumnu

Producer:

f/11 and Be There, 2018

In Love’s Shadow, 2018

The Last Ecstatic Days, 2023 (co-producer)

Directed:

The Leaf, 2012 (short)

The Last Letter Writer, 2021; co-directed and co-produced with Trong Nguyen

In Development:

Surreal Love (a dramatic series)

The Leavers (a stage production)