Foals video director designs his own whisky artwork

Ma began his career by starting a fanzine to showcase his work with emerging bands, which led to a chance meeting with the then-unsigned Foals. A friendship with the band developed into a long-running creative partnership, with Dave photographing press campaigns and directing music videos for the Oxford band.

He has worked with some of today’s most exciting music artists including A$AP Rocky, Nick Cave, Diplo, Skrillex, Bastille and Rudimental. His repertoire also extends well beyond music photography, with a newly discovered passion for capturing spectacular, aerial landscape photographs. Having spent so much time on planes travelling around the world, Ma began to realise that the best TV screen was the window right next to him. This kick-started a desire to shoot aerial views whilst flying, and, after realising that by playing with the colours in his shots he could make terrains look ‘otherworldly’, his first series of aerial landscapes were featured on the Jagwar Ma single artwork for "Come Save Me".

Ma has reworked his striking photographs of the Scottish Highlands for the Ballantine’s packaging. “I was ultimately drawn to working with Ballantine’s for the excitement of doing something completely different, that would still represent my artistic style," Ma says.

"It was awe-inspiring to see that part of Scotland, and to be able to shoot a really unique perspective of that landscape. My focus was to capture the natural beauty of the terrain, but I wanted to move the images away from the all-too-familiar green landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and give each gift pack its own distinctive look, which reflected the personalities of each of the blends.”