More Usual Suspects
2021
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 50” x 100” in (127 cm x 254 cm)
- Framed Image: 65” x 115” in (180.34 cm x 215.9 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 67” in (93.98 cm x 170.18 cm)
- Framed Image: 49” x 82" in (124.46 cm x 208.28 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.
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.
The Winner Stays
Montana, 2019
It was by pure chance that we found this treasure trove of a saloon bar off a remote country road in Western Montana. Time appeared to have stood still for over 100 years and as an authentic “Final Frontier” canvas on which to tell a story, I have never seen a better room in which to work. There was not one hint of modernity and the wooden and leather finish to the pool table was absolutely remarkable. The attention to detail throughout the bar was exceptional – the Bucking Horse is a labour of love for its owner – a true mountain man called John Crane.
48 hours before Cindy’s arrival, we spent a morning in the bar exploring every angle. The window light was okay, but the ambient light was marginal and it was clear we only had one angle to work with as I could not shoot towards the two windows. Luckily, with my maximum wide-angle lens, we could, from the chosen position, include enough of the bar to do it justice and also major on the pool table – which was the standout feature of the saloon.
The next question was what to do? This is an outstanding location and we needed to do it justice. We knew that the pool table would be critical and if we were to bring a wolf into the mix, he would need to be involved in the game.
On the day of the shoot, Cindy killed it – she was such a presence and that was exactly what I asked for. She owns the bar with her sovereign and authoritative look. I wanted to create a final frontier vignette that had a menacing overlay – no out of towner is coming into this territorial bolthole, playing pool and leaving with the cash. It is Wild West American hustle.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 20
- Image: 56" x 76" (143 cm x 193 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 95" (171 cm x 242 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 20
- Image: 37" x 56" (94 cm x 143 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 67" (122 cm x 171 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.
Tennessee Whiskey
Montana, USA 2020
“Whiskey and the cold go together for me, as does travelling around Montana and playing country music. This photograph’s title gives us the opportunity to celebrate all of the above. The ice bar was a specialist effort and over the two days I think the team did a grand job. There is a palpable sense of cold in this most remote bar two hours north east of Billings. The day we shot it was snowing heavily outside which I think made everyone’s job easier. It was not as if we were in a studio in Burbank with 90-degree temperatures outside.It was technically a challenging image as I needed the Tamaskan dog, the saloon girl, Josie Canseco, and the mountain man to be sharp or near sharp and this required a very slow shutter speed. This is a bar that should exist somewhere. If anyone finds it please make sure to let us know.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
- Standard Framed size: 48 x 66 inches
- Large Framed size: 67 x 94 inches
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.
Aces and Eights
Montana, USA 2020
“We are always looking for wild west saloon bars with a difference and this does result in a few lost days on tour. It’s an occupational hazard of being on the road in the company we keep. But we do say that we are exhaustive in our research. We tend to look for one transcending feature in a bar and on this occasion, in the legendary cowboy town of Miles City in eastern Montana, we found a 100-year 18ft tall oak Brunswick back bar. It would not have looked out of place in the smartest dining clubs of the early days of Wall Street. The owner of the Montana bar was more than open to a film crew coming to his bar on a wintry Sunday, but given Covid restrictions we had to think smart in the execution. There are many parts to this vignette. All are needed as I really wanted the room to be full of characters without losing the detail of the bar, after all, that was the reason we were there. The composition therefore needed to be very precise and all the talent had to listen acutely to directions – which in a couple of cases was a big ask.
But we got there in the end I think. Everyone did a grand job, including the four-legged poker player with the killer hand. I think we did justice to the bar, which mattered to me.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
- Standard Framed size: 48 x 66 inches
- Large Framed size: 67 x 95 inches
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.
Hostiles
Montana, USA
We have all, at one time or another, entered a bar and immediately felt out of place. At the most extreme level this can evoke a sense of trespassing. This was very much the narrative behind this photograph. To be greeted by an overtly territorial crew with menace and attitude.
But for the story to work, two things had to coalesce as one – the characters and the interior. I like playing with the cold, it adds a visceral layer to the story and in this case, it hints at an outpost on the final frontier. Surely the further off the beaten track we travel, the greater the chance of being the outsider.
This is a frame that exhausts every inch available in the camera and that was my intent. There were so many characters I wanted to include, but I was also reluctant to lose the mood of the frozen saloon. The icicles on the frosty bison with the snow laden television playing True Grit were key assets that needed to be seen to amplify the sense of cold.
Our key asset was, of course, Cin – dy Crawford and she had to have sovereignty of the joint. She can play a badass very well and that was her ascribed role.
It is not easy for everything to come together in such a tight setting as one tension spot can ruin the whole pas – tiche. It’s akin to camels and the eye of the needle. The wolf ’s paw on this occasion came very close to Cindy’s shot glass, but we got away with it.
The wolf is actually a domestic dog breed called Tamaskan – he is not 100% wolf, but that mattered little, as he merely added to the sense of trespass. The only reason to linger in this bar would appear to be the landlady. Maybe she could be won mover? Who knows, but she certainly owns the image.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20
- Image: 56” x 96”
- Framed: 71” x 111”
STANDARD - Edition of 20
- Image: 37” x 63”
- Framed: 52” x 78”
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 Unusual Suspects
Virginia City, Montana, 2019
Of course, we have worked in this room many times before and I know my light, my angles and the minimal depth of focus. We called last year’s photograph of the mountain men at the bar “The Usual Suspects” as that is exactly what they were. Some of those men rarely leave the warmth of The Pioneer Bar in Virginia City throughout winter – in fact they hibernate there. It proved such a popular image and has sold out across the world – in some cases raising huge sums for charity. So, when we went back this year, we thought it would be fun to have an additional crew member – Cindy Crawford.
The word juxtaposition is over used in narrative, but I think we can get away with it here. The old boys may drink a bit and smoke a bit of weed, but they were on their very best behaviour that day – which is essentially still medieval. An international icon joining their party was not something they bargained for and at least one cowboy convinced himself it was the weed. We had to call the image “The Unusual Suspects” as a nod to her presence.
The composition, which I could control, had to be spot on, but there is no way that I could control the wolf. It is a low percentage game this and we only came away with one shot – but we got it. Cindy looks fantastically glamorous and a little “bad ass” in her role, but, as always, it is the mountain men that take away the Oscars. Roxanna Redfoot did a grand job too.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image size: 56” x 93" (142.24 cm x 236.22 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 67” x 104” (170.18 cm x 264.16 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 71” x 108” (180.34 cm x 274.32 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image size: 37” x 61" (93.98 cm x 154.94 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 48” x 72” (121.92 cm x 182.88 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 52” x 76" (132.08 cm x 193.04 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 Chance Saloon
Virginia City, Montana 2019
To return to the Pioneer Bar in Virginia City, Montana is to return to my comfort zone and I feel an obligation to arrive with creative courage. We must push boundaries and not be lame in our conceptual processing. We have a free run here in the winter, when only 60 people live here and the Mayor only recently gave me the symbolic key to the city.
The group shots that I have photographed around the window end of the long bar have been well received and are difficult to top, especially as the last one included Cindy Crawford.
My premise this time was to markedly up the number of people in the picture (the most we had used before was six). This puts pressure on both the construction and the casting, as one lame character can become a tension point and ruin the whole image. We have all experienced the difficulty of group pictures on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving.
I think Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie works so well, not just because of the number of people in the image, but because every character is an additive. It is my favourite selfie.
We assembled a strong cast – the models Kate Bock from Cleveland and Olivia Culpo from Charlotte, native American families from Northern Montana and then, of course, my favourite local mountain men. The hair and makeup/styling team, led by Nikki Parisi out of LA, was outstanding. My direction was 150 years ago Wild West – appropriate as in the 1860s, over 15,000 lived in Virginia City and The Pioneer Bar would have been very busy.
All 11 characters played their roles well that day, but perhaps the picture is stolen by a lovely 85-year-old lady called Mary from Butte, Montana. We nearly called the picture “There’s Something About Mary” but perhaps her hair was not quite right.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 97" (143 x 247 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 108" (171 cm x 275 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 64" (94 x 163 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 75" (122 x 191 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 King And Us
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 74" x 56" (188 x 143 cm)
- Framed: 85" x 67" (216 cm x 170 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 49" x 37" (125 x 94 cm)
- Framed: 60" x 48" (153 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.