Sinclair Oil
Alpine, Texas – 2025
“In early 2025, I stumbled across a 1942 Sinclair Oil advert featuring a photograph of a cowboy on a horse racing against a low flying American Airlines Douglas DC7. Sinclair supplied American Airlines with engine lubricant and the advert was a simple play on horsepower. Like many of the commercial adverts of that period, the message lent on the contribution to the war effort.
The connectivity between horse and flying machine in the image was visually arresting and told a wonderful story. The creatives behind this piece of advertising art will no longer be with us but deserve great recognition.
We started to spitball a few ideas to make our own version of this photograph. Camera capability may have come a long way in the last 80 years, but the nerve to fly 50 feet off the ground in a decent size plane is still not for everyone and we needed to find a pilot who embraced our ambition and would be game enough to join us in this homage to a piece of World War II history.
We chose Alpine Airport in West Texas as our location for three reasons. Firstly, the airport sits in a stunning amphitheater with mountains to the west and south of the main runway. Secondly, the owners of the airport seemed to be our kind of people, who want to make things happen rather than find reasons why they should not. Thirdly, there would be no shortage of skilled cowboys in the area who could navigate their way through the horse part of the story.
Our pilot – Roger Woolsey – is a gem of a guy and used to low flying. His fabulous 1944 A-26 Invader that we used that day was active in The Battle of the Bulge in World War II, so the story came full circle.
This project would not have been possible without the help of the decorated Vietnam veteran – General Ron Fogleman – who introduced us to Roger and his team.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 50” x 103" in (127 cm x 262 cm)
- Framed Image: 65” x 118” in (165 cm x 300 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 34” x 69” in (86.5 cm x 175 cm)
- Framed Image: 49” x 84” in (125 cm x 213.5 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.
It's Closing Time
Montana, USA – 2015
“This staged image, taken in Nevada City, a ghost town high up in the mountains of Montana, is a favourite of mine. I wanted as much of the facade of the bar in the image but I also wanted to be as close to the mountain lion as possible. The best solution was to work with a wide-angle lens about 10 feet from the bar entrance and to hope that we could entice the lion out of the bar and straight towards me.
The set up was great fun and we were blessed with exclusivity and full cooperation from the local Montana Government. The strength of this picture is as much to do with access as it is about photography – without local permits and support, I could not possibly bring a mountain lion into a treasured historical building.
When I look at this picture, I do smile when I think that whilst there is just a lion and a few lit candles in front of the camera, there were at least 15 people behind and to either side of me. It was a far busier set than it looks – good images like this require time and a team effort.”
-David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 87” in (142 cm x 221 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 102” in (180 cm x 259 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 57” in (94 cm x 145 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 72” in (132 cm x 183 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.
Good Morning Siberia
Harbin, China – 2018
“When we released this powerful image on social media, we were asked what sort of lens magnification was used. Many camera enthusiasts thought that given the dangerous subject matter, it must have been a 400mm telephoto lens or more, but this sort of distance compression would have taken the power away from the portrait. This photograph was taken with a 105mm lens, and the benefits are immediately clear. I was that close.
If a fashion photographer was working with a top model, it is most unlikely that he or she would even carry a telephoto lens to the assignment, as the best distance to work from is anything from close to very close. Ideally, it should be no different with a predator, but clearly there are issues with proximity, which is why I often use remote controls.
In this conservation area, there is no chance of using a remote, as it is forbidden to step foot on the ground. The only possibility is to shoot from a caged vehicle with my camera window about four feet off the ground. This means that good shooting locations are very limited, as I never really want to be above the eye of an animal. The lower the camera, the more immersive the image.
During my reconnaissance there was just one small hill that the vehicle could get close to in the deep snow. The topography in this part of Northeast China can be extremely flat, and I just had to hope the tiger would work his way to my vantage point. Vehicles cannot get stuck here, as that poses a logistical problem, so it was all quite a riddle. It was complicated further by the fact that the light also becomes too stark by about 10:00 a.m. in the winter. The clock ticks on a cold, clear Siberian morning in January.
It did, however, happen. The bonus was that the tiger was enormous, maybe 750 pounds, and I was working from just five feet away. It was a high-energy moment—this is surely one of the world’s most ruthless killers.”
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 84” in (142 x 213 cm)
- Framed Size: 71” x 99” in (180 x 251 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 55” in (94 x 140 cm)
- Framed Size: 52” x 70” in (132 x 178 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.
Mohan
Singapore – 2022
“Due to a mutant gene, white tigers lack pheomelanin; the pigment that turns fur orange.
In 1951, the first white tiger cub was caught in India and brought back to the Maharajah’s Palace. He was named Mohan and fathered many cubs. All the white tigers left in the world are descendants of Mohan and all live under human care.
To take a portrait of these cats is akin to delving into a mythological story book.There is a visual disconnect with anything I have previously experienced. It is the stuff of fantasy.
My goal was simply to do justice to the animal and, if possible, highlight the pale blue eyes. These tigers are extremely dangerous and I knew that I needed the best camera and lens set up to compress distance and not lose detail.
I also knew that I would need several days to have my moment of a head on encounter. When it finally happened, I was lucky with the flat light. I also recognise that this picture could not have been taken 10 years ago; cameras have improved so much.”
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 74” in (142 x 188 cm)
- Framed Size: 77” x 99” in (180 x 226 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 49” in (94 x 124 cm)
- Framed Size: 48” x 60” in (132 x 163 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's Speech
South Africa – 2022
“Most tight portraits of lions, including mine, disappoint either because the camera is above the lion’s eye, or the distance between camera and subject is further than one would like or perhaps the lighting conditions compromise the textural detail. In most cases, it is all three of these issues and this is no surprise as lions do not live in studios and are also extremely dangerous.
The opportunity to take this portrait of the most handsome lion in Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary in South Africa came about because of the cave that we had built for our Daniel project. There was just one source of light from the opening behind my cage and by the time the light reached Yame’s face it was even and kind. This allowed me to glorify the detail in a lion’s face in a way that I have never previously been able to do.
My preference is for his look to be head on and symmetrical.I knew that even the most marginal of compositional imbalances would have a visual impact and the key was to be patient and retain concentration at all times. If I put the camera down, or had a breather, there would be every chance I would lose the moment of a true 180 degree face off.
The result makes me happy. It conveys regality, beauty and wisdom – all leading characteristics of adult lions. They are the Kings of Africa and I think in those precious moments in the cave, Yame had quite a lot to tell me.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 66" x 56" (168 x 142 cm)
- Framed: 81" x 71" (206 x 180 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 44" x 37" (112 x 94 cm)
- Framed: 59" x 52" (150 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.
White Mischief
South Africa – 2017
“Indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa, white lions are now extremely rare – they are the stuff of children’s fables rather than day to day reality in the bush. White lions need help to survive as a breed.
My friend Kevin Richardson, The Lion Whisperer, still looks after a few, although his favourite white lion in the sanctuary, Thor, was killed by a lightning strike – a perverse twist of fate given that Thor is the god of thunder and lightning. That tragic strike suggested the work of higher powers.
When I first saw this white lioness, her colouring, or indeed lack of it, had a profound and immediate visual impact on me. She was as much a mythological beast as she was a modern day cat. It struck me that we needed to build the narrative around the fact that she was so white. Nothing else really mattered – she should look haunting and ethereal.
I could be nowhere near the camera when we worked this image – these lions are dangerous and big. I operated the remote from at least 60 yards away, but I prefocused precisely on the ridge as I wanted no context other than the fluffy white clouds. This composition I felt would further enhance the sense of a fairytale.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 56" x 58" (142 x 147 cm)
- Framed: 71" x 73" (180 x 185 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 37" x 38" (94 x 97 cm)
- Framed: 52" x 53" (132 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.
Waterworld
Dinokeng, South Africa – 2023
“I want my animal portraits to glorify through proximity. It is that proximity that offers the texture and aesthetic strength and allows a close image to transcend one taken from a more sensible distance. At the margin, it makes all the difference to be close and not magnify too much.
The riddle of proximity is one with answers, it just requires experience and collaboration. I was protected from this lion by the strongest of steel cages, so whilst there was a gap for the camera, there was nothing like the necessary gap for a lion’s head.
These set ups should never be tried in normal situations as so many things can go wrong and this occasion was only enabled by the skills of Kevin Richardson -The Lion Whisperer. Without Kevin, there is no chance of a picture and every chance of some degree of danger.
I am not sure if this picture could have been taken 10 years ago for two reasons. Firstly, my relationship with Kevin was nascent and we now trust each other implicitly. Pictures like this require mutual trust. Secondly, cameras now have so much more capability than 10 years ago and we continue to leverage this to the full. It would be folly not to.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 56" x 84" (142 x 213 cm)
- Framed: 71" x 99" (180 x 251 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 37" x 56" (94 x 142 cm)
- Framed: 52" x 71" (132 x 180 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 Book of Daniel
Dinokeng, South Africa – 2022
“Good creative ideas are only as good as the execution and when I conceived the idea of a literal photographic depiction of Daniel in a cave with wild lions, I recognised that pulling it off in the field would be as examining a production challenge as anything we had undertaken.
The fact that we ended up with this image – a career highlight – is testimony to the skills of many South Africans with whom we collaborated on this project, none more so than Kevin Richardson, The Lion Whisperer. It was his behavioural understanding of specific lions within his famous sanctuary that gave me the confidence to even consider emotionally and financially investing in my mad idea. We have worked with each other for over eight years now and have developed a mutual trust. To build a cave and work from within that cave with wild lions is not a brief for a nascent relationship between artist and lion whisperer.
We both agreed that pivotal to the success of the final image was that
the lions we worked with should be interacting with each other and not me. If they were looking at me in the front of my heavy-duty cage, it would suggest
encroachment and the involvement of another party. There were no third party witnesses to Daniel in the cave, other than spiritual ones.
The lighting was also key and we needed time to look at various options to create the shaft of light. Without a light shaft, the sense of being in a cave would be diminished as opposed to amplified. It was this feature that would also add to the biblical vibe of the photograph which was essential; after all, we were working from the Bible. The low trajectory of the winter sun in Kevin’s conservation was in our favour and suggested that between 9 am and 10 am the light shaft could have the right angle so long as the hole in the cave’s ceiling was accurately positioned.
The plan was that Daniel was the final piece in the jigsaw and we would only bring him in when all else was done, albeit I had a precise position for him in my mind. Kevin’s lions would not show any mercy to our modern-day Daniel and we would never suggest that this image was anything less than two pictures combined.
Good things take time and I always knew this would be a three-day project for me on location. The predictability of the winter weather in the region was a key asset; the cloudless skies gave us identical light day after day and that then gave us optionality and time.
But for others the project was a month, not three days, and I am full of gratitude for the artistic skills of those that made the cave and the attention to detail of the production team led by Theuns De Wet in Johannesburg and Tom Williams in London. From start to finish, this was a team effort and all involved will, I hope, share my pride in the final outcome. I know Kevin does, and that is always the acid test.
There is absolutely nothing in this image I would change and it is authentic for sure. I doubt the idea can ever really be copied, but good luck to anyone that gives it a go. The cave has gone.
Normally our work is in black and white, but I just can’t decide whether I prefer the colour option, so on this occasion there are editions of both.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image: 56" x 98" (145 x 249 cm)
- Framed: 71" x 113" (180 x 287 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image: 37" x 65" (94 x 165 cm)
- Framed: 52" x 80" (132 x 203 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 Book of Daniel (Colour)
Dinokeng, South Africa – 2022
“Good creative ideas are only as good as the execution and when I conceived the idea of a literal photographic depiction of Daniel in a cave with wild lions, I recognised that pulling it off in the field would be as examining a production challenge as anything we had undertaken.
The fact that we ended up with this image – a career highlight – is testimony to the skills of many South Africans with whom we collaborated on this project, none more so than Kevin Richardson, The Lion Whisperer. It was his behavioural understanding of specific lions within his famous sanctuary that gave me the confidence to even consider emotionally and financially investing in my mad idea. We have worked with each other for over eight years now and have developed a mutual trust. To build a cave and work from within that cave with wild lions is not a brief for a nascent relationship between artist and lion whisperer.
We both agreed that pivotal to the success of the final image was that
the lions we worked with should be interacting with each other and not me. If they were looking at me in the front of my heavy-duty cage, it would suggest
encroachment and the involvement of another party. There were no third party witnesses to Daniel in the cave, other than spiritual ones.
The lighting was also key and we needed time to look at various options to create the shaft of light. Without a light shaft, the sense of being in a cave would be diminished as opposed to amplified. It was this feature that would also add to the biblical vibe of the photograph which was essential; after all, we were working from the Bible. The low trajectory of the winter sun in Kevin’s conservation was in our favour and suggested that between 9 am and 10 am the light shaft could have the right angle so long as the hole in the cave’s ceiling was accurately positioned.
The plan was that Daniel was the final piece in the jigsaw and we would only bring him in when all else was done, albeit I had a precise position for him in my mind. Kevin’s lions would not show any mercy to our modern-day Daniel and we would never suggest that this image was anything less than two pictures combined.
Good things take time and I always knew this would be a three-day project for me on location. The predictability of the winter weather in the region was a key asset; the cloudless skies gave us identical light day after day and that then gave us optionality and time.
But for others the project was a month, not three days, and I am full of gratitude for the artistic skills of those that made the cave and the attention to detail of the production team led by Theuns De Wet in Johannesburg and Tom Williams in London. From start to finish, this was a team effort and all involved will, I hope, share my pride in the final outcome. I know Kevin does, and that is always the acid test.
There is absolutely nothing in this image I would change and it is authentic for sure. I doubt the idea can ever really be copied, but good luck to anyone that gives it a go. The cave has gone.
Normally our work is in black and white, but I just can’t decide whether I prefer the colour option, so on this occasion there are editions of both.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image: 56" x 98" (145 x 249 cm)
- Framed: 71" x 113" (180 x 287 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image: 37" x 65" (94 x 165 cm)
- Framed: 52" x 80" (132 x 203 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.
Nkosi Sikelel' Lafrica
Dinokeng, South Africa – 2014
“This lion is well known locally as ‘Bob Cat’. He is held in great affection in part because of the regality of his black mane and also because of his eighteen years. I was drawn to his mane and also the wisdom elicited by his eyes – there is so much detail in the eye that I could have been his optician.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 58" x 56" (147 x 142 cm)
- Framed: 74" x 71" (188 x 180 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 39" x 37" (99 x 94 cm)
- Framed: 54" x 52" (137 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.