May 2026 · Europe Edition · Director's Cut

Behind the Lens with David Wilkins

How a veteran cinematographer captured the light, the silence, and the new LG OLED evo M5 — frame by frame.

Photography David Wilkins
Location Lisbon, Portugal
Read time 6 min
OLED evo M5 — wireless and weightless in natural light.

The Quiet Hour

It is the moment before sunrise, when the city has not yet begun its day, that David Wilkins starts looking. For thirty years, he has framed stories for cinema — but this morning, the story is a television. Or rather, what television has finally become.

"I have spent my career chasing light," he says. "The most demanding subjects are the ones that need to disappear into the room. This one disappears beautifully."

An Image, Made of Air

The OLED evo M5 is the first wireless 4K television to handle 165Hz. It is a number that means little until you sit in front of it. The cables are gone. The shadows hold. The black is honest black. And the room — the room is what was always meant to be the foreground.

Lisbon at first light. Shot on M5.

What David Saw First

On set, the new model behaves like an instrument. Calibrate once, and it stays calibrated. The Filmmaker Mode reads the source faithfully — no ornament, no noise. "It does not announce itself," David says. "Which is the highest compliment you can give a screen."

For a man who has spent decades making images, the absence of a screen — and the presence of an image — is the new craft.

A Single Frame, Then Another

The session ends as quietly as it began. The light shifts. The shoot is over. The screen powers down and disappears again into the room. David steps back from the camera, and from the years.

"Some images you make. Some images you let arrive. The good ones, you do both."

Credits

Photography & Words · David Wilkins
Editor · Monthly LG Editorial Team
Featured Product · LG OLED evo M5 (2026)

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