Gold
I think that this big image was well earned. Gary Player’s adage that ‘the harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get’ carries a great deal of resonance every time I look at this photograph. How appropriate it was therefore that I took this image just 32 hours after celebrating Gary’s 80th birthday in Sun City, South Africa. We have become good friends over the years and I am full of admiration for his passion and commitment to the pursuit of excellence. In my lower profile world, this image of an adult male lion is as good as I can do, but by practicing and getting in wrong, I found the way to finally get it right. It is a lucky shot, but maybe I earned it. For one thing, I have never returned from a shoot dirtier or smellier in my life.
The African lion population may have fallen by 90 % over the last 100 years but there are still enough of them around in Botswana and South Africa in particular, for their behaviour to be well documented by photographers. It is not like capturing imagery of a snow leopard – seek and you will find. However, an encounter with a lion where the human party is sitting 80 yards away in a jeep is hardly groundbreaking work. Telephoto images of this encounter tend to be sterile, generic and fairly dull. There is no sense of the animal’s soul because everything is too distant – no one takes a portrait of a beautiful woman from a jeep 80 yards away and why should that therefore work with a wild animal? Proximity and no magnification contribute character and power to any portrait.
As Ansel Adams taught us, ‘the lens looks both ways’ and he understood that a standard or marginally wide angle lens offered the best conduit for offering some degree of spiritual immersion. The 35m lens is indeed by far my favourite portrait lens, but very few photographers even consider using this in wildlife portraiture – it is totally counter intuitive – especially with predators such as big cats. It is good to break rules and approach one’s work at 180 degrees to what is considered the norm – what is the point of being part of the crowd?
My approach – as many know – leans on the use of desk research, analysis, field support from the very best and then the employment of remote controls. On location I will often stand in a cage and leave the camera some 50 yards from me, to do the work. It is the opposite of a zoo – the lion is in the wild and I am in the cage. Many that know me might joke that it is not before time that I am caged, but this is not normal photography. However, it is my way and over the years, I have refined it again and again. Nevertheless the success rate is very low – it is not a job for those that require a diet of immediate and relentless gratification. If it were that easy there would be a few other images like ‘Gold’ knocking around.
Kevin Richardson is an icon in South Africa – much like Gary Player, albeit not in sport but conservation – like indeed Gary’s late brother Ian. The rhinoceros was Ian Player’s field of practice, whilst Kevin is the Lion Whisperer. I have worked with Kev for sometime now and we have built up a great mutual respect and friendship. To watch him work with lions in the same way that George Adamson did in Karo, Kenya all those years ago is quite astonishing. His talent is unique and quite remarkable. Kev works with very few photographers and I hope that continues to be the case – his huge fan club across the world suggest that there are no awareness issues here. Lions are dangerous to all but him and I have always worked rigidly within what he regards as safe – he has a responsibility and so indeed do I.
We work together now on a number of conservation fronts, but the most immediate goal is to put pressure on the legality of the practice of canned hunting of lions in South Africa. This medieval and dark practice is protected by the wealth of some South Africans who will fight to protect their profitable trade with trophy hunters. But in time, it will be banned and I am sure Kevin will be instrumental in this progression. Our legacy of our time on this planet does not currently look that great, but this would constitute a small victory.
‘Gold’ was my last picture of 2015 and perhaps it is also the most impactful I have taken in the year. The focus around the lion’s eyes is pin sharp and that lends huge power to the image. Without that precision, it would not be the big picture that people assure me that it most certainly is. Certainly no picture that I have taken has ever had such an immediate impact on social media.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 71" x 91" (180 cm x 231 cm)
- Standard: 52" x 65" (132 cm x 165 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Gandalf
Dinokeng, South Africa, 2019
This white lion, named after Tolkien’s character Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, is one of the most formidable lions within Kevin Richardson’s famous sanctuary. Kevin is comfortable walking with most of the lions under his care, but this is not one of them.
Nevertheless, I wanted to take a tight portrait of Gandalf where my eyes were exactly at his eye level. This was not going to be simple. I needed to be close, but also safe. Kevin and I worked on an approach that involved shooting through an improvised latch in one of his maximum-security fences.
The first time we tried this approach in the late afternoon, Gandalf was preoccupied by other things. When he eventually approached us, the evening light was uneven across his face, which distracted from the detail. There was no shot.
But that night at camp, when I looked at the photographs I had taken, I realized the great potential of the idea that Gandalf looked like a mythological beast, and he had so much mane that I knew I could fill the frame from about eight feet with no more than a 105mm lens. He was like something out of a fairy tale—all battle scared and white— the most fearsome cat I had ever seen.
We agreed the best time to work would be just before sunrise. There would be enough light to have the depth of field I needed, but the light would also be flat and even. Moreover, Kevin thought Gandalf would be slightly more cooperative first thing in the morning.
We had our moment around 6:45 a.m. Thanks to Kevin’s extraordinary ability to work with lions, Gandalf positioned himself in the one place that my idea could succeed—and then he stood and stared me down.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 68" x 56" (173 cm x 143 cm)
- Framed: 79" x 67" (201 cm x 171 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 45" x 37" (115 cm x 94 cm)
- Framed: 56" x 48" (143 cm x 122 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Emma
It is integral to my approach to photography to see focus as the variable that can never be compromised. This probably hints at my beginnings as a sports photographer. The shorter the distance between subject and camera, the more skill and precision is required. Think of cows close to a train window as against cows in the distance.
There is no room for error at all in the taking of the image – especially when using a lens like a 20mm – if the focus is an inch behind or ahead of the subject’s eye, the image will lose its “wow factor”. I won’t print it. Even with a reasonable motor drive, this is a low percentage approach.
I miss most often by being early but also sometimes by being marginally late. However, when it works, the results can be sensational. This image of Emma – a lioness within Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary – speaks for itself. I don’t need to comment on the detail in her face – it’s there for all to see.
There is more information in this portrait then any other lioness shot I have taken in my life. It is as simple as that. I think the big print is about life size and it is immensely powerful. What a magnificent cat and not a bad image as well.
But this photograph, taken in August 2020, is validation for continuing to try and reward for never quitting on an idea. Build it and they will come.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 71” x 71” (180 cm x 180 cm)
- Standard: 52” x 52” (132 cm x 132 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Cara Cigar
When a known photographer leaves this world, there is never the time or the space to remember too much of his or her work. There tend to be just three or four iconic images that transcend the overall body of work that will always be remembered. It is these three or four shots that define a career.
I am not sure where my career will take me and I am not sure if I have taken an iconic image yet – I will let others decide. But I do know that this photograph, which has been unveiled as part of the TAG Heuer Don’t Crack Under Pressure campaign, is probably the most powerful shot that I have ever taken. Yes, it was a commercial shoot with one of the world’s most famous women, but I think it goes beyond that and the image will be coveted by collectors. It grabs the eye and then holds it in a vice-like grip. Everything about the work is viscerally powerful.
I look back on that day with great emotion and there are so many people to thank. None more so than the British icon that is Cara Delevingne She is – of course – stunning, but she is also authentic and intelligent and couples this with admirable work ethic. Furthermore, on this day, she was incredibly brave and fittingly did not “crack under pressure”. This image is not manipulated – there were five yards between her and the lion. At no stage did she show tension or anxiety and that made my job so much easier.
I think a key to the image was the reasonably powerful directional late afternoon sunlight, as the shadows on both Cara and the lion are so consistent that the authenticity of the image cannot be questioned. In the morning, the light was flatter and therefore the lion and Cara were not as visually linked as they are here.
This campaign would not have been possible without the help of Kevin Richardson in South Africa and I thank him for the awareness he brings to the plight of the lion in Africa. We know each other so well and that day in December in South Africa was the culmination of a trust that has built up over five years of working together.
Finally, I would like to thank Jean- Claude Biver – the genius behind TAG Heuer – for backing me to get this shot and Valerie Grande at TAG for always wearing a smile and being a delight to work with.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- XL: 85” x 81” (215 cm x 206 cm)
- Large: 75” x 71” (190 cm x 180 cm)
- Standard: 55” x 52” (140 cm x 132 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your masterpiece. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Asmus Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
The Proud Night Watchman
The Dinka means “people’ in their own language and there are about 5 million of them in South Sudan. They have many salient characteristics – a deep sense of community, a obsession with their cattle and an average height 3 inches higher than the average for the human race. The men couple this height with great muscularity and physical strength. Each Dinka faction – and there are many- will fight and kill to protect their community and their cattle from outsiders – and they do this with guns not primitive weaponry.
In this vast cattle camp near Yirol, I stayed late one afternoon to watch the behaviour of the adult herdsmen and this particular man showed all the aforementioned characteristics – he was at least 6 foot 5 inches of muscle, he carried a gun and he watched attentively over his community below. The picture tells an accurate story of daily life, not a contrived one.
I understand why depiction of guns anywhere in an image can hint at news reportage or photojournalism rather than art, but on this occasion, I believe the gun offers quiet dignity and completes the photograph. It is because of that gun that there is serenity below, not in spite of it. Life in a cattle camp in a war torn country is made safer by the gun , not more dangerous.
I believe that this image conveys the deep pride of the Dinka. The proud nightwatchman has pride in his role and his responsibilities – and this lends an almost inconceivable romanticism to the work.
We got on well because he liked the pictures I had of British cows – which he found hilarious.. As always, its all about homework
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- 71" x 106” (180 cm x 269 cm)
STANDARD
- 52" x 85” (132 cm x 215 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
No Laughing Matter
South Africa, 2019
I know 2 things from photographing hyenas. The first is that they have a few idiosyncrasies – they run funny, smell funny and with their oversized heads and large ears, they look dead funny too. Maybe they are just laughing at themselves – a good sign in any mammal.
I don’t actually think many of us really know exactly what hyenas look like because, they are the least photographed of all the storied animals in Africa. We are not familiar with them as we don’t revere them – indeed to be called a hyena, has become a term of abuse, which seems rather unfair on a species that adds to the rich fauna of sub-Saharan Africa. Hyenas are clearly useful additions to animated films and musicals as they can be demonised and portrayed as the bad guys.
But here is the other thing about hyenas which slightly plays towards their stereotyping of being the villains – they don’t respect camera equipment at all. I am sometimes asked which animal destroys the most camera equipment. Elephants kick my remote cameras in Amboseli, lions will confiscate the camera, but get bored after a while, whilst bears and bison could not be less interested.
But the adult female hyena in this photograph, picked up some of my equipment from the ground and I watched from the safety of my cage as it was broken up into 30 different pieces over a 5-minute period of intense brutality. It is the first and last time, I will leave camera equipment on the ground if there are hyenas in the area.
Luckily my memory card which contained this photograph was not a victim of the assault. It was taken from my cage on a 58mm lens – I am not sure many have tried that with a bunch of hyenas before. I would not take risks with them – they could live up to their name and that would not be funny.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 87" (143 cm x 221 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 98" (171 cm x 249 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 57" (94 cm x 145 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 68" (122 cm x 173 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Keeping Up With The Crouches
Charity Art Project Summer 2019
This bizarre composite taken over a period of 5 seconds by a watering hole, on the North East side of Amboseli dry lake, was taken with a 28mm lens placed on a remote-controlled camera. There is no doubt that it was a low percentage idea because my focal point required a huge giraffe within no more than three meters of the camera, otherwise a 28mm is all too loose a lens to use against a flat backdrop of an arid desert. I chose my focal point because I wanted a low chance of a big shot rather than a good chance of a boring shot. That has to be the way in 2019
Giraffes are also very skittish and even setting up the camera is an issue if they are within 400 yards. They don’t like human presence and why indeed should they?
Over the years we have failed with giraffe, but in August 2019, one unbelievable piece of luck resulted in this image. When I looked into the camera’s screen from the then deserted watering hole, I could not believe it and I just hoped that the focus was pin sharp – not easy when the head of the giraffe is much further away from the camera than the hoofs.
The focus was fine, although I have no other photograph from the series. By the time the giraffe arrived, the sun was getting low – and the camera was pointing that way, so this was not an easy file to work with. I wanted detail in both the giraffe and the sky.
The end result is surreal and then the next problem was to find a name. Our team threw ideas around in the jeep in Kenya and when we came up with “Keeping up with the Crouches”, we knew we had it. Of course, it is a nod to a tall British footballer and overseas audiences will no doubt be confused, but Peter and Abbey Crouch are delighted with the name and they do indeed have four children.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
XL (Edition of 8)
- Image: 66" x 77" (168 cm x 196 cm)
- Frame: 77" x 88" (196 cm x 224 cm)
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 65" (143 cm x 166 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 76" (171 cm x 193 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 43" (94 cm x 110 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 54" (122 cm x 138 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Kong
Rwanda, 2019
I have travelled north from Kigali to the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda six times over the last 10 years and I have generally failed to return home with anything that does justice to Africa’s “Jurassic Park”. ere are many reasons – including, of course, my own inept- itude.
For one, these magni cent mountain gorillas are only accessible in mid-morning and therefore if the sun is out, the jungle is not an ideal canvas on which to work – it’s all streaks and a nasty cocktail of overexposed and underexposed. More importantly, it is di cult to have a sense of proximity and a sense of place in the same image – the jungle can be exceptionally dense and this works against o ering a wider contextual narrative. It does not pay to be greedy, rather it pays to show common sense.
irdly, the experience is so other-worldly that it takes time to work out what to do with the camera – and every cameraman, no matter who they may work for, only has an hour in which to work. ink- ing time is limited in front of a troop of 22 or more gorillas.
So, before I arrived on Monday, a few decisions had already been taken. We would go when the chance of cloud cover was best and we would focus on the Silverbacks. Most importantly, I knew there was no point in deciding prior to the hike what lenses to take, as we had no idea of the topography in which the trackers would nd the gorillas, but I knew I could leave some gear halfway up the moun- tain and then work with whatever the layout dictated. In other words, this year the goal is to be spontaneous and not prescriptive.
Yesterday, this worked. e vegetation was so dense and messy that wide angles were out. On the other hand, there was cloud cover and this offered the chance of a tight portrait of Gihinga – a 32 year old Silverback.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 52" (143 cm x 132 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 73" (171 cm x 186 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 41" (94 cm x 104 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 52" (122 cm x 132 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Judge And Jury
Rwanda, 2019
Finding a silverback gorilla high up in the volcanoes in Rwanda in a position offering a sense of place and a wider narrative, is a tough ask. It’s effectively a numbers game in that the more times you make the trek, the greater the chance that an opportunity will arise. Until Wednesday of this week, I had not had that break and my records are proof of that a er ten trips. ere have been ten encounters of course – the rangers and trackers ensure that no trek goes unrewarded – but they have always been in dense forest with little or no backdrop.
Some of the guides and the lead ranger knew my frustration at the lack of depth I was finding and suggested a troop, the Umubano Gorilla Family, that was quite far west of the group of volcanoes. I agreed to give it a go but was curious when I was told that I was the only one to be making the trip this day.
When we set o from the village of Bisate with my guide and porters at 7.30 am, it quickly dawned on me why I was alone – this was going to be one hell of a climb – and we were already at 9,000 . Normally the wall crossing to the rainforest is about 20 minutes from a drop off point and on Wednesday it took 90 minutes – all uphill. For mountaineers this would be a piece of cake, but I would be the first to admit that I am no mountaineer.
Anyhow, it was good for me and when we reached the wall and looked up to the rainforest, I could see why the area had potential – there were plenty of ridges and look out points. It was still dense, but there seemed more room to breathe in places.
I left most of my gear with the porters and took just one camera and my trusted 58mm lens. I wanted to roll the dice a little and also be nimble. When we reached the troop, they were on the move and I focused on the lead Silverback. And so it was that I got my moment. e perspective was exactly what I was looking for.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 67" (143 cm x 171 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 78" (171 cm x 199 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 44" (94 cm x 112 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 55" (122 cm x 140 cm)
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
The Last Dance
This is maybe the last time I try this ground up, immersive approach on an African river bank, as when the adult hippo got up to charge, I had to move a little too quickly. I was always going to be okay as there were rocks between us and I had full confidence in my guide and his safety instructions, but it was not a totally comfortable two seconds.
This was taken a week ago in Ruaha in Tanzania and it was most certainly the last frame in that sequence. We are told that the human’s eyes are the windows to the soul. Well, I think these hippo eyes are quite instructive too as is the water swell around the advancing tanker of a body.
What an immense animal.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12
- Image: 47” x 103”
- Framed: 62” x 118”
STANDARD - Edition of 12
- Image: 37” x 81”
- Framed: 52” x 96”
We ship worldwide and use a multitude of providers to safely deliver your artwork. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.