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.
Ice Age
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2019
After three days in Yellowstone Park this week, I was suffering from the flu. It is a stunningly raw and beautiful park in the winter but it can also be extremely cold. The steam from the thermal activity freezes on whatever it can – including the big bisons that gravitate there to keep warm. I have waited for a very cold day like yesterday in Yellowstone for a long time, but looking at me this morning I have certainly paid the price.
This kind of photography may test one’s appetite to work in extreme conditions, but it also tests our maths. I have never taken a photograph of anything on an aperture of F18 before, but I did yesterday as I wanted as much depth of focus as possible. My inclination was to be greedy and to try and have the bison’s nose in focus and also her eyes. So I sacrificed shutter speed and resolution and hoped for the best. It was impossible to check too much in the field, but when we returned home, I found one gem. I hope she is feeling better than me today. She will be – they are as tough as hell.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 68" (143 cm x 173 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 79" (171 cm x 201 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 45" (94 cm x 115 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 56" (122 cm x 143 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.
American Idol II
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2017
This powerful image of a large bull bison was captured near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It is as good as I can do and probably my most impactful animal portrait for some time. The bison is an emblematic North American animal that roamed the continent millions of years before man. When fully grown, it is a massive beast that deserves our respect and recognition.
When I was researching bison earlier this year, I quickly understood two things – firstly that some rogue bulls carry a serious threat if their space is invaded and secondly that the adult face is both prehistoric and enormous. The bison is all about the face and I sensed that any picture that didn’t recognize this, would miss my goals. My instincts were that the image also needed a sense of “Yellowstone in the winter” and this, combined with the need for proximity, all pointed to a ground level, remote control approach.
To work with ground level radio controlled cameras and a prime wide angle is very much my signature style, but it is easier with elephants in Amboseli, than bison in Yellowstone. This is not an easy location – our guide suggested that 95% of Yellowstone is out of bounds in winter. It is the most geothermal active park in the world, throw avalanches, wolves and bears into the mix and we have a primordial soup of creation.
I failed about 10 times with my camera positioning and I tweaked my lens/camera combination constantly. It was most frustrating and I was generally grumpy. But on the third day at about 2 pm, it all came together. The trees and the sky are most helpful additives – but what a face and what a back structure. I haven’t seen this sort of image of a big bison before.
I would like to thank Tom Murphy, one of America’s most acclaimed nature photographers, for assisting me on this assignment. We were both frustrated by the milder weather at the start of the week, but his knowledge and fireside tales of the area kept the spirits up. A good 20 years ago in the depth of a very cold winter, Tom – equipped with just a light tent – took a back country ski trip across the 100 km span of Yellowstone – a remarkable feat that truly humbles anything I have ever achieved and a trip that will soon be commemorated by a long awaited documentary film.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 68" (143 cm x 173 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 79" (171 cm x 201 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 39" (94 cm x 99 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 50" (122 cm x 127 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.
Winter's Coming
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA – 2020
These were probably the worst weather conditions I have photographed under for many years, but it was those very conditions that define this image. If it was the same bison, in the same field at midday in the summer, there would be nothing special at all. I am reminded that we always have to fight to get what we want. Big bull bisons in the snow as a starting concept is appealing as they are primeval beasts that survived an ice age and portraits work best when their faces look like monsters from Game of Thrones.
When working in heavy snowfall, there is a need to be as close to the subject as possible so as to reduce the number of snowflakes hitting the line of path between the camera and the subject. Too much and the whole thing becomes a little too abstract.
It is not permitted to be within 25 metres of a bison in Yellowstone and this rule is often enforced in a charmless and dictatorial way. There is actually a prison at the north entrance in Yellowstone and visitors are left in little doubt that transgressions within the park could lead to the transgressor serving time.
That morning in early January 2020, I did not have a measuring tape with me, but I guess I was as close as I could be and maybe a little more. But I was on my own – clearly no one else was daft enough to be out there in that storm just after sunrise. I think the amount of snow detail between the camera and the bison adds to the mood of the image. Winter was very clearly coming.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 56" (143 x 143 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 67" (171 x 171 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 37" (94 x 94 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 48" (122 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.
Homeland
Lochcarron, Scotland 2020
More often than not, a sense of place is an integral ingredient of a strong contextual photograph. If we can manage that in South Sudan and South Georgia, it should be possible in my home country of Scotland. Whenever I work up here, I am slightly on edge as I feel a little bit more pressure to deliver.
This is probably the best photograph I have taken in Scotland (if we exclude the football images of Celtic and Rangers in the 1980s) because it scores highly on both subject and context. If one or other is mediocre there is no image, but in this case, the 14 pointer stag is magnificent and the rest is Scotland as Scots know it and as it is assumed to be by others. Grand, slightly mournful, but at all times unique.
I don’t have an issue magnifying nature. The romanticist movement glorified aesthetics and I am of that persuasion. Why dumb things down? Scotland can be bleak and gloomy, but therein lies its beauty.
I could not have achieved this frame, high up in the coastal hills of North West Scotland, without considerable local help and I would like to thank Colin Murdoch for his support and counsel. Our team call him “The deer whisperer” and I think that is about right. He is the most cheerful man I know at 5 am in the morning. I think this a deeply emotional image and all the better for it.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image Size: 56” x 78" in (142.24 cm x 198.12 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 93” in (180.34 cm x 236.22 cm)
STANDARD
- Image Size: 37” x 51” in (93.98 cm x 129.54 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 66” in (132.08 cm x 167.64 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 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.