Roll The Dice
Butte, Montana, USA – 2020
The Silver Dollar Saloon in Butte has everything I would look for in a photo shoot bar – deep and thin, interesting wall decoration and good neon lighting. Furthermore, there are precious few signs of modernity anywhere in the premises.
Craps has been the dominant casino game in Las Vegas since the World War Two and I have always wanted to incorporate a table into one of my sets. As soon as I scouted the bar, I saw the potential – we just had to find an old Craps table somewhere in Butte. This was not hard as 100,000 people once lived here and the winter evenings were long.
Craps as a game lends itself to still photography more than roulette and poker because the players can crowd around the end of the table as one player throws the dice vaguely in the direction of the cameraman. It worked in the promo stills for Oceans 11 – so it may as well work in the Silver Dollar too. The key is that everyone at the end of the table must – for focusing purposes – be the same distance from the camera. There is no depth of field inside and a two inches disparity will mean that the focus on the transgressor is out.
Kate Bock is made for the Sharon Stone look from the film Casino and Daniella Braga does not take a bad picture. The girls had worked well with Jordan Belfort – The Wolf of Wall Street – in our retake of that iconic film last year and so I invited him to Montana for part two.
The frame just works – Elvis, the dice, the stare of the wolf and of course Kate. There is nothing I would change at all and that’s not common.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 70" (143 x 178 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 81" (171 x 206 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 46" (94 x 117 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 57" (122 x 145 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.
Goodfellas
Chicago, Illinois 2019
Like so many, I have long been drawn to gangster films – and the director Martin Scorsese is one of my great inspirations. Chicago is the home of the mobster and I was determined to capture the mood of the Al Capone and Prohibition era in a single frame. To my mind this demanded a location canvas that could substantiate the narrative. I homed in on the old Italian Neighbourhood in Chicago – where thousands of Italians used to live in the 1920s and 1930s. Around 24th street and Oakley, it was a tight knit community with roots in Tuscan towns such as Lucca.
On an intersection on 24th Street there is a well known Italian restaurant – Bruna’s, that was around at the time of Al Capone. Bruna – an Italian lady – owned the joint for many years and allegedly had fatally knifed a couple of customers during her tenure. Her portrait still holds court in the dining area.
I visited on the premise of being hungry and I knew immediately there was potential. The current owner – Luciano from Siena – was willing to cooperate so long as some cash changed hands and he could be an extra in the image. Both requests seemed reasonable, besides historical precedent suggests that this was no place to argue with the patrons.
The casting couch was entertaining as it was difficult to distinguish between those who were acting and those who were the real deal. I could only vouch for two of them – Luciano, on the far left of the photograph and Josie Canseco, who played her role brilliantly as she always does. The formation worked to the side of the bar – what a bunch.
After the shoot was wrapped, one of the mobsters – going by the name of Donny Greco – brought out his music box and we all sang Frank Sinatra and drank Italian white for an hour. My kinda town, Chicago is.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 94" (143 cm x 239 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 105" (170 cm x 267 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 62" (94 cm x 158 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 73" (122 cm x 186 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.
Coyote Ugly
Big Timber, Montana 2019
Any town with a name like Big Timber immediately grabs my attention. It just sounds like a place with an interesting past. As it is, this modest community of 1500 to the west of Livingston in Montana, is a little run down and sleepy. It is nestled between the Crazies mountain range to the north and Yellowstone to the south and most people simply pass it by.
However, in trawling the internet, we discovered a saloon bar in the high street with neon signage on the facade that caught my interest. We visited the location and there was certainly potential, but clearly the shot would have to take place at night.
There was then an immediate problem, as we discovered that the bar was the central congregation point for all the mountain men – not just from Big Timber, but from far and wide. To bring a wolf and a Victoria’s Secret model to the entrance and shoot when the bar was open, was simple asking for trouble.
The only viable option was immediately obvious – to shoot at 5 am, when hopefully most of the clientele had had enough, though in Montana, one can never be sure. Normal drinking hours don’t apply in this state.
As it was, we were okay and the bar owner agreed to keep the neon lights on for us. e next issue was simply that when we were in position, it was around -20 degrees – fine for the wolf, but a little chilly for California’s Josie Canseco.
She is, however, a trooper and we got the job done. My narrative was simply that the couple had hooked up inside the bar and were rushing home. e wolf certainly looks like he has a smile on his face – who can blame him.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 61" (143 cm x 155 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 72" (171 cm x 183 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 41" (94 cm x 105 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 52" (122 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.
Cindy's Shotgun Wedding
Nevada City, Montana, 2019
You don’t get a second chance to work with Cindy Crawford, so there was obviously a little pressure. I took her to a place I know well – the ghost town of Nevada City, Montana as I hoped familiarity with the light and the angles would help me. I needed as many variables under my control as possible on an ambitious story line. The one thing we could not manage or predict was the weather and last week it was cold.
If Cindy was outside her comfort zone with the temperatures so low and a big wolf as a companion, she did not flinch. She is professional, stoic and game and it was an honour to work with a true American idol. She sets a high bar on so many levels.
It was a big effort for her to fly from LA to hang out with me and my team whom she had never met before and then work in freezing temperatures with some big wolves. She never complained and took no fee at all. Quite amazing.
Proceeds from the sales of this image – Cindy’s Shotgun Wedding – will go towards her notable charity work – focused on raising money for children with cancer. She nailed the image and I think everyone will agree she looks fantastic.
I am very fortunate that she trusted me to do this and I am humbled by her professionalism and grace.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 20
- Image: 56" x 88" (143 cm x 224 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 99" (171 cm x 252 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 20
- 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.
American Hustle
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 masterpiece. Domestic delivery and installation may also be available via Hilton Asmus Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
The Magnificent Seven
Marfa, Texas – 2020
The outdoor bar at The Lost Horse Saloon in Marfa, West Texas, is just how I hoped an outdoor bar, in traditional cowboy country, would look like – a mishmash of wood, corrugated iron, weaponry, stuffed animals and beer merchandise. My preference is that these bars should be cluttered and deeply individualistic – there are no formulas in West Texas other than in the Crystal Meth motorhomes. On our scouting, I was immediately drawn to the sign on the front of the bar which located the destination in the most authoritative of ways. Marfa may only have a modest population of 2,121, but almost everyone in Texas has heard of Marfa. It is the art outpost where “Burning Man” meets “No Country for Old Men”. Absolutely nothing about the place – which sits three hours from the nearest commercial airport – is in any way normal.
My creative prompts in using the facade of the bar were led by two dominating objectives – firstly, to make sure that everything and everyone in the picture earned their space and secondly, I wanted the lighting to remain fairly dim so that the character of the joint was retained. To flood the narrative with light would give me greater depth of focus, but it could turn the bar into a sitcom studio. We needed to hold back. The magnificent seven all earned their place and it was a thrill to work with the lovely Nathalie Emmanuel – the English actress that many will know from playing Missandei in Game of Thrones. She was much easier to instruct than the horse, but he is so used to being in that bar that we got there in the end. The white nose of the horse was a bonus.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 67 x 93 inches framed
- Standard: 48 x 65 inches framed
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 Lost Horse Saloon
Marfa, Texas – 2020
A great facade for an authentic Texas working bar with the two neon lights outside. But this frame was a technical challenge because these two lights offered insufficient ambient light to give any detail outside – even before contemplating capturing a rearing horse.
This meant using some LED lighting but we had to be careful not to kill the mood. The only card I had in my hand was that I could open up the lens and sacrifice depth of field, as all the detail I wanted would be within a narrow range from my camera. This gave me a chance.
The girls did a great job, as did the cowboy and the horse. The Heath Ledger type cowboy in the bar was a good addition and then it was just down to luck with the horse on a longish shutter speed. A year ago, we did a similar outdoor shot in Big Timber, Montana. Coyote Ugly – as we called it – was well received. The Lost Horse Saloon was much more of a challenge on so many levels. The two certainly complement each other very well. Maybe this is the start of something.
Available Sizes
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 71” in (142.24 cm x 180.34 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 86" in (180.34 cm x 218.44 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37" x 47" in (93.98 cm x 116.84 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 62” in (132.08 cm x 157.48 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.
Happy Hour
Texas – 2020
It’s “Happy Hour” and yet everyone in this photograph looks fairly short of happiness – but of course that was my instruction. The less levity, the more the sense of a foreign land. Marfa is foreign land to most of us.
The Lost Horse Saloon Bar in the town is well known – in no small part because the legendary Anthony Bourdain filmed here during his “Parts Unknown” series. He chose well – it has depth to it, both literally and metaphorically. The owner, Tye Mitchell, is also the real deal and often brings his horse to the bar. He is no Bianca Jagger and the Lost Horse Saloon is no Studio 54 – but this is Texas, not Manhattan and horses at bars don’t seem that incongruous. It almost goes with the territory.
When we photograph in bars in America, there tends to be a couple of commonly used tactics. Firstly, we tend to have an open bar and secondly, we also take control of that bar and ask anyone that is not right for the picture to sit behind the camera – albeit beer or whisky in hand. Everyone has to earn their right to be included.
This picture was taken around 11pm and the bar bill was already in excess of $2000 and asking politely for everyone to listen and be compliant was only going to become more and more of a challenge. That’s where Ty came in handy – he bosses his bar with some authority.
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 45” x 97” in (114.3 cm x 246.38 cm)
- Framed Image: 60” x 112” in (152.4 cm x 284.48 cm)
STANDARD: ALL EDITIONS ALLOCATED OR SOLD. Please contact us for more details.
- Image Size: 30” x 65” in (76.2 cm x 165.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 45” x 80” in (114.3 cm x 203.2 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.