Judge And Jury
Rwanda, 2019
Finding a silverback gorilla high up in the volcanoes in Rwanda in a position offering a sense of place and a wider narrative, is a tough ask. It’s effectively a numbers game in that the more times you make the trek, the greater the chance that an opportunity will arise. Until Wednesday of this week, I had not had that break and my records are proof of that a er ten trips. ere have been ten encounters of course – the rangers and trackers ensure that no trek goes unrewarded – but they have always been in dense forest with little or no backdrop.
Some of the guides and the lead ranger knew my frustration at the lack of depth I was finding and suggested a troop, the Umubano Gorilla Family, that was quite far west of the group of volcanoes. I agreed to give it a go but was curious when I was told that I was the only one to be making the trip this day.
When we set o from the village of Bisate with my guide and porters at 7.30 am, it quickly dawned on me why I was alone – this was going to be one hell of a climb – and we were already at 9,000 . Normally the wall crossing to the rainforest is about 20 minutes from a drop off point and on Wednesday it took 90 minutes – all uphill. For mountaineers this would be a piece of cake, but I would be the first to admit that I am no mountaineer.
Anyhow, it was good for me and when we reached the wall and looked up to the rainforest, I could see why the area had potential – there were plenty of ridges and look out points. It was still dense, but there seemed more room to breathe in places.
I left most of my gear with the porters and took just one camera and my trusted 58mm lens. I wanted to roll the dice a little and also be nimble. When we reached the troop, they were on the move and I focused on the lead Silverback. And so it was that I got my moment. e perspective was exactly what I was looking for.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 67" (143 cm x 171 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 78" (171 cm x 199 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 44" (94 cm x 112 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 55" (122 cm x 140 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 Dance
This is maybe the last time I try this ground up, immersive approach on an African river bank, as when the adult hippo got up to charge, I had to move a little too quickly. I was always going to be okay as there were rocks between us and I had full confidence in my guide and his safety instructions, but it was not a totally comfortable two seconds.
This was taken a week ago in Ruaha in Tanzania and it was most certainly the last frame in that sequence. We are told that the human’s eyes are the windows to the soul. Well, I think these hippo eyes are quite instructive too as is the water swell around the advancing tanker of a body.
What an immense animal.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12
- Image: 47” x 103”
- Framed: 62” x 118”
STANDARD - Edition of 12
- Image: 37” x 81”
- Framed: 52” x 96”
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.
Balls
As is typical with my hippo work, this is the last frame in the sequence before safety dictated that I had to go. I was indeed charged and I now have a degree of hippo phobia.
Running away from a hippo with a camera and reasonable sized lens is not a comfortable experience, as turning around to check whether the charge is a mock one, is not natural. Instinctively, the reaction to a charge is to run. 99.9% of the time the hippo is bluffing, but those moments are never about doing the maths.
But the validation of the approach is in this photograph. I need to be at eye level and preferably have the whole face showing as this is the most prehistoric face of any animal on the planet. The soft early morning light gives the best chance of glorifying its textural extravagance and that is why we had some early starts in Ruaha National Park in Tanzania. The camera should be an amplifier to the distinctive features of the subject and with a hippo, it’s certainly the face.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12
- Image: 56” x 71”
- Framed: 71” x 86”
STANDARD - Edition of 12
- Image: 37” x 47”
- Framed: 52” x 62”
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.
Miserable Monkey
Jigokudani National Park, Japan 2013
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 40" x 67" (102 cm x 171 cm)
- Framed: 51" x 71" (130 cm x 181 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 30" x 45" (77 cm x 115 cm)
- Framed: 41" x 56" (105 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.
Family Tree
Borneo 2018
Orangutans are so expressive – or rather their expressions are so human that we relate to them far more than we relate to, say, a zebra. This makes them great fun to photograph, especially if you are alone with them. The danger often in Borneo is that they see you at the same time that they see a load of other people and then their eyes will be all over the shop.
On this occasion, far from our original location, it was just me and that made all the difference – especially with the baby.
Available Sizes:
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 63" (143 cm x 160 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 74" (171 cm x 188 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 42" (94 cm x 107 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 53" (122 cm x 135 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 House Of Orange
Borneo, 2018
Another memorable moment from a charred forest in Southern Borneo. There is no doubt that these images have made quite an impression and are raising awareness of the plight of the orangutan. She looks more human than a number of Scots I know.
This mother and child were much easier to work with than the big male. She seemed largely comfortable with our presence. My instinct was to work with my “go to” 58mm lens and set the camera for as much detail as possible. The trick was to be in the water and to make myself look small and unthreatening (harder now than it once was!).
But I needed some protection because on the way up river we had noticed several crocodiles and I am terrified of crocs. They could have been anywhere, skulking in the water reeds, but after some manoeuvring, the two motor boats formed a V shape and blocked off the water behind and to the left and right of me. It was only later that our lead guide told me, with a mischievous grin, that there had been a recent crocodile attack nearby but didn’t think he could tell me before otherwise I wouldn’t have got the shot. Good card players the Indonesians! After all, no shot, no bonus.
Photographs like this hopefully serve as a call to arms for conservationists.
Available Sizes (Framed Size)
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.
Frontier Town
Butte, Montana, USA – 2020
This is Smokey – the mountain lion who lives in a sanctuary not far from where this photograph was taken. He has a keeper who he responds to, but he really does not care much about the wishes of anyone else. This photograph on fresh snow was therefore quite well earned.
Manifestly, he came to me from a long way off and when he arrived, I was left intact.
There are many dynamics that were vital to the concept working, but we like to retain some mystique. A wide-angle lens and an appetite to get cold were two that I can disclose. Access to private land with the best land above Butte was a third.
In my view the best pictures tend to be made rather than taken and this was most certainly made. Made in Montana.
This photograph works equally well in colour as it does in monochrome, so on this occasion we have decided to do editions of both.
AVAILABLE SIZES
LARGE
- Image: 56" x 91" (143 x 232 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 102" (171 cm x 259 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 60" (94 x 153 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 71" (122 cm x 181 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.
Silent Witness
AVAILABLE SIZES:
- Large: 67 x 87 inches
- Standard: 48 x 61 inches
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.
Smoky The Mountain Lion
Montana, USA – 2018
Many consider that the definitive work on photography in the 20th century was perhaps written by the late Susan Sontag. It is a bold claim as there is a great deal of competition for that accolade, but her essay was translated into 32 different languages, so I guess it is up there.
I finally read it on a plane this summer and was fairly spellbound. To shorten one little paragraph: “Photography is as widely practised an amusement as sex or dancing – which means that, like every mass art form, photography is not practiced by most people as art. It is mainly a social rite of family life and a way of certifying an experience.” Susan wrote before animal photography became mainstream – whether it be conducted in the back garden with the family dog or with zebra on the plains of the Serengeti. Either way the paragraph largely holds true.
This image of a mountain lion was taken under controlled conditions in the hills of Montana and therefore it is not certifying an experience – it is creating an experience. I have not taken this photograph – I have made this photograph.
It is not an authentic wildlife photograph and makes no claims to be so. I started with a preconception of what I wanted to achieve – an intimate portrait of an aggressive cougar and worked backwards from there. Ideally, I wanted a degree of facial detail that would normallyonly be attained in a studio with a tame mountain lion. The hills in North East Montana are a long way from any studio, but the mountain lion largely responded to his carer and that offered the opportunity.
Immersive photography or cinematography offers a better chance to emotionally engage the viewer. The greater the proximity between the subject and camera, the greater the chance of finding the soul of the subject – whether it be a cat or a human. The shorter the lens, the greater the chance of emotion and drama and the lower the light, the better the canvas on which to paint.
There were a number of factors at play – but the goal was simple – to convey the soul of Smokey – the mountain lion.
Available sizes:
- Large: 67 x 106 inches
- Standard: 48 x 73 inches
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.
Black Cat
South Africa 2019
I try as much as possible to work against the light, not directly into the sun, but about 45 degrees either side of it. With a black leopard like this, there is no point even considering the light source, the brief is simply to hope to get something in the limited seconds available. As it happened, on this occasion, the light was almost exactly at that 45 degrees.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE
- Image: 52" x 101" (132 cm x 257 cm)
- Framed: 63" x 112" (160 cm x 285 cm)
STANDARD
- Image: 37" x 71" (94 cm x 181 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 82" (122 cm x 209 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.