Friday Night at the Pioneer
Virginia City, Montana – 2020
“It’s not often that famous supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio ostensibly plays an extra with a wolf getting the lead role, but for this photograph to work, that is exactly what I asked her to do. Of course she is integral to the photograph and played her role of the saloon girl with her usual excellence. She is intelligent, fun and easy to direct.
This bar, high in the hills of Montana, is well known to me and the light; depth of field and angles are all familiar territory. I am in my comfort zone, but the wolf is not easy to get right. So many things are totally beyond my control. The wolf’s eyes are vital – they simply have to be sharp and that tests me and my camera to the full.
This image works and of course it is not dissimilar to The Wolf of Main Street which precipitated this series all those years ago. That photograph achieved a record price at Sotheby’s – a day I will always remember.”
-David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 76" (143 x 193 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 87" (171 cm x 221 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 50" (94 x 127 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 61" (122 cm x 155 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.
Westworld
Montana, USA
Westerns tend to have an unapologetically masculine skew to their castings. The Wild West was certainly characterised by hard drinking tough men who coupled entrepreneurship with resolve and a lack of ethics. Hollywood would lead you to believe that it was a male dominated adventure almost to the point of parody. On screen few women elbowed their way into this testosterone-laden landscape
and horses were often given more attention.
However, women must have gone West too, otherwise birth rates would have slowed a bit. These women must have been gritty as it was a journey for only the very stoic. In a genre that revels in the lone male protagonist, we wanted to use a still photograph to celebrate the women of the Wild West. They were not just window dressing.
The romanticist within me was not going to be prompted by grotesque characters like Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy Domergue in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. The prostitute role – so well played by Diane Lane in the brilliant Lonesome Dove – is also well worn. We wanted a softer, more palatable narrative, albeit one with a sense of the woman emphatically holding her own.
I homed in on the idea of a “tough as nails” saloon owner, with more class, intelligence and glamour than any of her unworthy patrons. We had the saloon in Nevada City – it is such a good facade – we just needed the woman and the styling.
We decided on the supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio and she was indeed perfect for this role. Her styling team did a great job and the whole frame works. I think she thoroughly enjoyed herself that morning.
I am sure there were women like this in the Wild West in 1850. Let’s hope so. As a collective they should be celebrated and remembered and theirs was one hell of a story.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12
- Image: 56” x 86”
- Framed: 71” x 101”
STANDARD - Edition of 12
- Image: 37” x 57”
- Framed: 52” x 72”
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.
My Baby Takes The Morning Train
Montana, USA
In 1863, Bill Fairweather and his party discovered gold in southwestern Montana. They were on their way to Yellowstone County from Bannack but were waylaid by a band of Crows. Whilst hiding from the Indians in a gulch they found gold. They named the gulch after the alder trees lining the gulch. Alder
was one of the great gold producers of all time. The site of the largest placer gold strike in world history. It produced $10,000,000.00 during the first year.
Given this background, I thought it would be appropriate to bring a modern-day Indian Chief into the abandoned mining train in Nevada City.
Alessandra Ambrosio is not just a famed super-model, she is a wave of fun and good energy. Working with her and her team is an absolute joy. It must have seemed a long way from her home country of Brazil in that carriage, but she is so effective in whatever role I outline for her.
We found a Montana paper from the height of the gold rush and thought it would lend to the story if Chief John Spotted Tail was reading it. This was a commuter train like no other.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56” x 71”
- Framed: 71” x 86”
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37” x 47”
- Framed: 52” x 62”
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.
Once Upon A Time...
Los Angeles, California 2019
My plan was to find a section of Sunset Boulevard emblematic of Hollywood – it needed to be familiar to all and have some depth. After a great deal of walking up and down, we chose a spot 200 yards east of the entrance to Chateau Marmont, because the billboards looking west were large and well positioned and the hotel and the hotel sign are so iconic. The bend in the road also helped give the frame a compositional balance that I could not find on other sections – such as Sunset Plaza. In my head it was always going to be a wide angle shot.
To shut the road down meant shooting first thing on a Sunday morning – which worked as we knew the best light would be sunrise if we were shooting towards the Pacific. Equally, I did not want the sun to rise too much as it would be tough on both the wolf and the model’s eyes. Of course, the model was not your run of the mill model – it was Alessandra Ambrosio – one of the world’s most photographed women. She has a very special look and is so easy to work with.
This photograph is as I wanted – very LA, very West Hollywood and jammed with reference points. It’s a little crazy, a little La La Land, but that was the goal. Most of all, to the best of my knowledge, it’s authentic. No one can try and copy it now.
“Once Upon a Time …”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 76" (143 x 193 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 87" (171 cm x 221 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 50" (94 x 127 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 61" (122 cm x 155 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.
Chateau Marmont
Los Angeles, USA 2019
It was always my intent to shoot somewhere on Sunset Boulevard as part of our American Road trip series. It is such an iconic stretch of road that has played host to Hollywood stars and their cars for generations. The stretch heading west from Chateau Marmont to the Sunset Plaza is a rich feast for filmmakers, framed on either side with enormous billboards. Sunset Boulevard takes people on their own American dream – it is difficult not to feel energised when driving on it.
But it is far from easy to photograph here – it is a busy highway and the only time it can be closed down for filming tends to be early on a Sunday morning. Furthermore, to be able to use wolves in the car – integral to the theme of the series – West Hollywood was out of bounds as they do not allow the use of exotic animals in outdoor filming. Hollywood, however, does and the boundary line is right by Chateau Marmont.
To an extent, this made our choice of location relatively straightforward. Including the Chateau billboards or the Chateau itself would locate the image emphatically. The Castle On Sunset, as it is now affectionately known, is notorious – conjuring up imagery of sex, drugs and general bad behaviour. This is not a place that lends itself to reserved or quiet weekends. I saw a narrative that played to this reputation – and this demanded a frame that was both suggestive and sexy.
Alessandra Ambrosio is synonymous with the Victoria’s Secret brand. The Brazilian model has been pivotal to their shows and campaigns for years and I was delighted that she agreed to work with me. As always, I want to thank my dear friend Ed Razek – who helped make this possible. Alessandra is a stunning woman and very suited to the 1970’s look we styled her in.
The wolves were not easy to work with and we only had a limited opportunity between sunrise and 10 am when our permit expired. It was a morning of thinking fast and reacting to circumstances as we found them.
The end result is hopefully playful and sexy. What wolf wouldn’t want to arrive with Alessandra at the Chateau?
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 87" (143 cm x 221 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 98" (171 cm x 249 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 58" (94 cm x 148 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 69" (122 cm x 176 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.
Castle on Sunset
Los Angeles, CA 2019
It was always my intent to shoot somewhere on Sunset Boulevard as part of our American Road trip series. It is such an iconic stretch of road that has played host to Hollywood stars and their cars for generations. The stretch heading west from Chateau Marmont to the Sunset Plaza is a rich feast for filmmakers, framed on either side with enormous billboards. Sunset Boulevard takes people on their own American dream – it is difficult not to feel energised when driving on it.
But it is far from easy to photograph here – it is a busy highway and the only time it can be closed down for filming tends to be early on a Sunday morning. Furthermore, to be able to use wolves in the car – integral to the theme of the series – West Hollywood was out of bounds as they do not allow the use of exotic animals in outdoor filming. Hollywood, however, does and the boundary line is right by Chateau Marmont.
To an extent, this made our choice of location relatively straightforward. Including the Chateau billboards or the Chateau itself would locate the image emphatically. The Castle On Sunset, as it is now affectionately known, is notorious – conjuring up imagery of sex, drugs and general bad behaviour. This is not a place that lends itself to reserved or quiet weekends. I saw a narrative that played to this reputation – and this demanded a frame that was both suggestive and sexy.
The wolves were not easy to work with and we only had a limited opportunity between sunrise and 10 am when our permit expired. It was a morning of thinking fast and reacting to circumstances as we found them.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 81" (143 x 206 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 92" (171 cm x 234 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 54" (94 x 138 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 65" (122 cm x 165 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.