Hello (B&W)
Alaska, USA 2015
This image was run in the British Press a few days after my encounter on Barter Island. It is a special picture and I guess it will become a well-known picture. It is something of a platitude to say that the bigger an image is printed, the greater the detail, but on this occasion it is very pertinent for two reasons.
Firstly, a polar bear is a huge animal. If possible, any portrait should reflect this and – in this case – given that it is a head on shot, that is easy. The bear’s head in the image should be at least life size – if not more.
Secondly the bear is pin sharp around its eyes. I think that I must have been closer than just about anyone has ever been to a polar bear in the wild and lived to tell the tale. I was also using Nikon’s flagship 58m lens – which captures every hair at the assigned focal point. When the first large print of the image came off the drum in LA, one of the team turned to me and said “David, look at the eyes – you are in them!”. He was right; I inadvertently took a selfie through the eyes of a polar bear. That surely is groundbreaking.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image: 56 x 91” in (143 cm x 231 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 102" in (171 cm x 259 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image: 37" x 60" in (93.98 cm × 152.4 cm)
- Framed: 52" x 75" in (132.08 cm × 190.5 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.
78 Degrees North
Svalbard, Norway 2017
I should start by saying that I have generally been disappointed by my own work with polar bears in Svalbard. I haven’t tended to do them or their habitat justice. This is a “Giants’ Kingdom” and my images from previous trips have been too marginal to do either the giants or their kingdom justice. Luck evens itself out, but nature can seem cruel in its distribution of content and in this barren archipelago, I don’t recall many favours until June 2017.
This year, however, I did have some luck and came home with three images. There is no doubt in my mind that this photograph of a big male polar bear lends weight to the contention that wildlife photography does not need to be reportage – it can be art. The photograph is elevated by the negative space and the bear’s anonymity rather than weakened by it. Since 2011, I have spent over 30 days shooting in Svalbard and this is my favourite image of a polar bear in this part of the Arctic – indeed the more I look at it, the more proud I am. As my fellow Scottish photographer and friend, the great Harry Benson, once said “great images can never be repeated”. Others will decide if this is a great image, but it is certainly not going to be repeated.
The eye is immediately grabbed by the detail we recognise but have perhaps never seen – the distinctive pads on the sole of his foot. The central pad, that resembles the Nike style “swoosh”, is the epicentre of a photograph that owes its differentiating content entirely to this right foot. The image is made complete by its own lack of completeness – the storytelling is started by the camera and finished by the viewer. We are asked to finish the story, not just read the story and the Spartan economy of the narrative helps us along the way. Less is more in the Arctic – its beauty is in its simplicity and the enormity of the white detail. It is not a noisy place – in fact it is characterised by the lack of noise. The image pays homage to that variable – it conveys a true sense of place. This is not a natural human habitat – it is in fact our final frontier.
The irony was that it was the very last of a sequence of 60 images I took of the polar bear. A second after this moment, this most solitary of predators was over the horizon and our paths will never cross again. I did not press the trigger with this image in mind – it was such an intense 15 minutes that it would be most disingenuous to suggest that it was preconceived. The heart was beating too fast to consider creating art – these moments sometimes just happen. It was only when I returned to the ship, that I realised I had an extremely evocative photograph.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
SOLD OUT
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.
Diamonds In The Sky
Alaska 2018
This was a hugely exciting morning on the North Slope of Alaska. I think we deserved it because the previous 72 hours had been very tough both weather wise and content wise. Regardless, we fancied our chances from about 5am as the storm passed. We had done our homework and had the very best local guide. It’s moments like this and images like this that make all the compromises so worthwhile. We are very privileged to work so closely with such a magnificent animal as the adult polar bear.
The hard thing, as many know, about working from a small boat in choppy seas, is that the camera moves in step with the boat. This is tough enough on a small lens, but with a big lens it’s very challenging indeed. Throw in subzero temperatures and a wind chill and we have a true test of one’s ability to work in tough conditions. I am glad no one can see some of the pictures I took in that sequence – they were of the sky!
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image: 56" x 82" (143 cm x 209 cm)
- Framed: 67 x 93" (171 cm x 237 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image: 37" x 54" (94 cm x 138 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 65" (122 cm x 166 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.