1953 (Colour)
Lake Tahoe, California – 2024
“Ferrari was a great opportunity, but it demanded scouting for a location that was its aesthetic equal. The more grand the ambitions with a ‘tableaux’, the more vulnerable each of the constituent parts are to a sense of dragging the end photograph lower. Location scouting is an integral part of our working year, as storytelling rarely blossoms in a contextual vacuum.
The idea of using tall snow berms to frame the Ferrari and then offering a period James Bond type narrative, was not a new addition to our conceptual idea factory. It had been knocking around the edges for some time, but we simply did not know exactly where to find narrow roads shouldered by walls of snow 10 foot high. Weather patterns do not give the filmmaker the luxury of forward planning in something so specific and we need to plan well in advance.
What we did know is that these visuals tend to occur towards the end of the ski season at high altitude in both Europe and America. It is uneconomic to snowplough small private roads with further winter storms around the corner, but equally, as soon the spring thaw accelerates, the snow berms on ploughed roads lose their height and grandeur.
There was some precision required on timing and my intuition suggested that this was a shot for the third week of April, whether the location was in the Alps, the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.
We knew we would be filming in America after Easter and our research concluded that the ski area that tends to have the most amount of spring snow in the US is the Sierras. Historically the mountains above Lake Tahoe get dumped on in March and the snow above 7000 ft can still be very deep in mid-April. To shoot in California rather than Colorado was a big call, but we felt it gave us the best chance and the best access. The snow season runs late in Lake Tahoe.
Our team based themselves out of the old railroad town of Truckee, California and with the help of some properly informed mountain men, we found our precise location and went to work. When I arrived on set, it was one of the few times in the last few years when I have been visually arrested by what was in front of me. This was an exceptional setting and an entirely secret one too. Our timing and our planning was on the money.
I would like to thank Brooks Nader for being such an excellent 1950s girl and Chip Connor for lending me his prized 250 MM, Ferrari. Meanwhile, locals Stefan Moore and Troy Caldwell were rock stars making the berms high and safe. Every constituent part of this image was first class and in reality, I had the easy job.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37" x 58” in (93.98 cm x 147.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 102” in (180.34 cm x 259.1 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 58” in (93.98 cm x 147.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52" x 73” in (132.1 cm x 185.4 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.
1953
Lake Tahoe, California – 2024
“Ferrari was a great opportunity, but it demanded scouting for a location that was its aesthetic equal. The more grand the ambitions with a ‘tableaux’, the more vulnerable each of the constituent parts are to a sense of dragging the end photograph lower. Location scouting is an integral part of our working year, as storytelling rarely blossoms in a contextual vacuum.
The idea of using tall snow berms to frame the Ferrari and then offering a period James Bond type narrative, was not a new addition to our conceptual idea factory. It had been knocking around the edges for some time, but we simply did not know exactly where to find narrow roads shouldered by walls of snow 10 foot high. Weather patterns do not give the filmmaker the luxury of forward planning in something so specific and we need to plan well in advance.
What we did know is that these visuals tend to occur towards the end of the ski season at high altitude in both Europe and America. It is uneconomic to snowplough small private roads with further winter storms around the corner, but equally, as soon the spring thaw accelerates, the snow berms on ploughed roads lose their height and grandeur.
There was some precision required on timing and my intuition suggested that this was a shot for the third week of April, whether the location was in the Alps, the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.
We knew we would be filming in America after Easter and our research concluded that the ski area that tends to have the most amount of spring snow in the US is the Sierras. Historically the mountains above Lake Tahoe get dumped on in March and the snow above 7000 ft can still be very deep in mid-April. To shoot in California rather than Colorado was a big call, but we felt it gave us the best chance and the best access. The snow season runs late in Lake Tahoe.
Our team based themselves out of the old railroad town of Truckee, California and with the help of some properly informed mountain men, we found our precise location and went to work. When I arrived on set, it was one of the few times in the last few years when I have been visually arrested by what was in front of me. This was an exceptional setting and an entirely secret one too. Our timing and our planning was on the money.
I would like to thank Brooks Nader for being such an excellent 1950s girl and Chip Connor for lending me his prized 250 MM, Ferrari. Meanwhile, locals Stefan Moore and Troy Caldwell were rock stars making the berms high and safe. Every constituent part of this image was first class and in reality, I had the easy job.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37" x 58” in (93.98 cm x 147.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 102” in (180.34 cm x 259.1 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 58” in (93.98 cm x 147.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52" x 73” in (132.1 cm x 185.4 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 Bills II
The Flying D-Ranch, Southwest Montana, 2021
“The concept of this photograph has been on my wish list for many years. A group of male bison charging through heavy snow, directly towards a camera is certainly a rare sight and it always seemed a bridge too far from almost every perspective. The question has always been where and how could this epic scene unfold in front of a camera?
Yellowstone National Park was never going to be the answer. This sort of collective behaviour does not tend to happen in the park and if it did, there would be zero chance of being in the right place at the right time to film it. It is difficult to break new ground in Yellowstone.
In 2020 an American artist, John Banovich, an exceptional talent and good friend, suggested that I approach Ted Turner to see if I could gain access to his stunning 180 square mile ranch – Flying D – saddling Yellowstone and neighbouring Big Sky. This remarkable place is nine times the size of Manhattan and showcases Montana at its most stunning best.
John’s wonderful painting of a group of running bison adorns the wall of the main reception of the exclusive Yellowstone Club and he took his inspiration from spending time at Ted Turner’s ranch. I recognized that this was a link worth pursuing. Flatteringly, a few months after my initial approach, the Turner team agreed to collaborate in the hope that we could raise money for Ted’s conservation initiatives. Ted Turner is one of America’s biggest landowners and also one of its most acclaimed conservationists and he reintroduced both bison and wolves into Flying D, one of his three Montana ranches. In mid-winter, his team of ranchers will herd some of the 5,000-resident bison into areas where feeding is easier and this controlled activity creates an opportunity to work a situation. Just like cowboys herding their cattle in Texas, the skill sets of the Turner ranchers in deep snow are a privilege to watch.
The difficulty is that bison in this vast ranch are more skittish of humans on foot than their Yellowstone cousins, who see thousands of tourists every day. I therefore needed either to be camouflaged or out of sight as they made haste in my direction. Luckily the Flying D team knew of a group of rocks behind which I would be obscured from the bison’s line of sight.
After many a failure, and some adjustments to the approach, one gorgeous winter morning in February, we achieved what we set out to do. It was a real team effort and I want to thank John Banovich and the whole Turner Team.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 37” x 100" in (93.98 cm x 254 cm)
- Framed: 52” x 115" in (132.08 cm x 292.10 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image: 25” x 68" in (63.50 cm x 172.72 cm)
- Framed: 40” x 83" in (101.6 cm x 210.82 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.
Snowcat
Heilongjiang, China – 2024
“This portrait, taken in the heart of the Siberian winter, is elevated by the weather conditions at the time. On a clear sunny day, it would have been a decent image, but it is the falling snow and the flat light that deliver the needed mood and the sense of place.
I have been deliberating about photographing a Siberian tiger in the habitat that defines it for several years, but North China – where I took this image – had, until recently, been out of bounds for foreigners since Covid. Even now, it is not the most welcoming of places. It’s a long way from home, English tongues are rare and, in the winter, it can offer indecently low temperatures.
I recognised that I would need to allocate a good amount of time in the north to wait for the snowfall. Siberian winters are extremely cold, but it does not snow that often. There are many hours spent killing time in a hotel room but the accommodation is much more comfortable than it used to be. It is such a long way from home and there is little merit planning for a three-day visit anyway. It’s an odd job sometimes: I probably invested about 120 hours, including travel time, for two six second windows of opportunity.
On this trip I worked closely with the Chinese authorities and, in retrospect, this brief encounter was only possible because of the help of two or three extremely influential Chinese people. I am reminded that access is a key word in photography and this is normally achieved by investing in people. My charm offensive with my Chinese contacts was several months long. My team knows who they are and their stature within China, but no one else needs to know.
The question that I will be asked about this picture will simply be “how on earth did you get it?”. My answer would be two-fold. I was in a bespoke vehicle with a lower window opening, smaller than a tiger’s head, but larger than a camera lens. The second part of the answer is more important: it was by showing China and the Chinese some respect. Without that there was no chance. I know some people will criticise me for working with a country with a questionable record in conservation, but life is too short and I am an artist first and foremost.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 83” in (142.24 cm x 210.82 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 98” in (180.34 cm x 248.92 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 55” in (93.98 cm x 139.7 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 70” (132.08 cm x 177.8 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.
Pappy + Harriet's
Pioneertown, California – 2024
“There are few bars in the world that truly justify being labelled as cultural institutions: especially if they are marooned in a dusty, windy desert. But Pappy + Harriet’s, which has been hosting world class musicians in quirky Pioneertown on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park in California, can legitimately be tagged in that manner. Pioneertown is essentially a fake 1880s frontier town, but it is about as real as fake towns go.
Founded in 1982, Pappy + Harriet’s has hosted many celebrated music acts taking time out from nearby music festivals such as Coachella and Stagecoach. Some are coming to simply chill and catch the vibe, but that vibe can then be so seductive that they end up performing impromptu on stage: McCartney, Sting, Robert Plant and Patti Smith have played here, along with rock bands such as the Arctic Monkeys and the Dead Kennedys.
The crowd is a magical cocktail of cowboys, bikers, old-timers, creative artists and musicians and it is this assembly that has elevated a dusty old roadhouse into a joint whose status is secure. There is nowhere quite like it and it is a known destination.
On the day I was shooting in Pioneertown, I happened to be speaking to an old friend who is the President of Live Nation’s European division and when he found out where I was, his voice was excited as if I was on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Much of the credit for the continued allure of this famed honky tonk must, of course, go to the founders – Harriet and her husband Claude “Pappy” Allen. He passed in 1994, but his keen artistic eye still stamps its authority on the interior details of the bar. That was important to convey in this image. After Pappy’s passing, the ownership changed hands a few times and now operates under the loving care of “J.B.” Moresco and Lisa Elin. I want to thank them for their kindness on the day of this crazy shoot. The joint is in good hands for another generation of lovers of life”. – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 99” in (142.2 cm x 251.5 cm)
- Framed Image: 99" x 114” in (251.5 cm x 289.6 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 65” in (93.98 cm x 165.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 80” (132.1 cm x 203.2 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.
Frozen Mountain
Spanish Creek, Montana – 2024
“This photograph, taken in the Spanish Creek region, near Bozeman, Montana, is made by the 18-inch snowstorm that had died out only 12 hours previously. It was late February and locals said that this was the biggest storm of the winter: so we were fortunate to be on site and fully prepared. The snow cover here tends to be less substantial than up towards Big Sky and we needed that snow cover. Whilst there is no more important variable in our planning than rigorous attention to trusted weather forecasts, we sometimes have to acknowledge that luck plays a big role. This was a lucky day.
I think that any portrait of a bull bison, in which this enormous and emblematic animal is perpendicular to the camera, must be more kinetic than a head on portrait, simply because there is no sense of engagement. The bison is behaving as normal and not reacting to my presence because I was hidden behind a rock. He may have smelt me but he did not see me.
It’s the small things that can sometimes elevate a picture. In this case, it’s his eye detail and then immediately below his face, the blades of grass caked in frozen snow. There is an emphatic sense of the cold, which is what I always strive for in my bison work. A similar portrait shot in summer would lose zest and a powerful narrative. Fresh snow is certainly a photographer’s friend”. – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 40" x 103” in (101.6 cm x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 55" x 118” in (139.7 cm x 299.7 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 30” x 78” in (76.2 cm x 198.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 45” x 93” (114.3 cm x 236.2 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 Lodge at Vail
Vail, Colorado – 2024
“The Lodge at Vail was the first proper hotel to operate in a resort that arrived at the Colorado ski party exceptionally late. The first stones of Vail were laid in 1962 making it the new kid on the block versus other Colorado ski towns such as Aspen, Breckenridge, or Steamboat Springs, which existed as 19th century mining towns prior to the establishment of their ski resorts.
To begin with, the hotel was a “white elephant”, losing $100,000 every year until the faux Bavarian town matured into something of substance. But to borrow from Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, he will come” and sure enough they came. The Lodge at Vail became the epicentre of a town that enjoyed growing popularity because of its abundant skiing and ease of travel.
The facade of the hotel has not changed much for several decades and I thought I could use that as a backdrop, in much the same way we did at Badrutt’s Palace in St Moritz, Switzerland in 2023. That photograph – which lent on the glamour of the 1970s in the resort – was hugely popular. There was an element of James Bond to it coupled with intense femininity.
The formula worked and so this became the prompt for my shot outside the Lodge. After all, Vail became a place to be seen fairly quickly and by the mid 70s it was in vogue. Bohemian glamour was as prevalent in Colorado as it was in the Swiss Alps, maybe even more so.
Who better, therefore, than Alessandra Ambrosio – the Brazilian supermodel – to play the lead in this narrative. She has such presence and authority and is a joy to work with.
We would also like to thank Austin Akers for the use of the beautiful 1956 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing”. – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 71” in (142.2 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 86” in (180.3 cm x 218.4 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 47” in (93.98 cm x 119.4 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 62” (132.1 cm x 157.5 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 Minturn Saloon
Minturn, Colorado – 2024
“The railroad and mining community of Minturn – which dates to the 1880s – allows for some raw grit to saddle up to the shiny neighbouring resort town of Vail. The contrast between the two places is astonishingly stark, given that they are only three miles apart. Whilst Vail was styled by architects and designers on Alpine Bavaria, Minturn was styled by grizzly prospectors looking only as far as the next day.
Vail was built 80 years after Minturn and when the contractors finished a day’s shift, they would head west to the Minturn Saloon. It was the place to go and 60 years on, despite some remodeling and ownership changes, it remains exactly that. All those who know Vail, know the Minturn Saloon. Rather like the Woody Creek Tavern in Aspen, it has fostered a strong patronage over the years and when the doors open at 3pm, the bar fills at a speed to suggest that this is a special and loved destination. As always it is the people that make the places and this bar attracts a rich variety of clientele.
Part of the saloon’s appeal was that it was directly accessible by skis, by car, by foot and by horse and it therefore became something of a vortex at the end of the day. By the 1970s, the Minturn not only attracted cowboys, builders and miners, but the new bohemian hipster crowd from over the hill.
I am always drawn to the visual contrasts afforded to a filmmaker when a wild frontier destination is fused with glamour. This was the premise for this story. I saw a chance to play with the cold winter light that day and the result works pleasingly well in colour.
Alessandra Ambrosio is one of the leading models in the world and it was a pleasure to work with her. She certainly killed her look and showed why she is at the top of her game. We would also like to thank Austin Akers for the use of the beautiful 1956 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 71” in (142.2 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 86” in (180.3 cm x 218.4 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 47” in (93.98 cm x 119.4 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 62” (132.1 cm x 157.5 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.
Code Red
Minturn, Colorado – 2024
“The railroad and mining community of Minturn – which dates to the 1880s – allows for some raw grit to saddle up to the shiny neighbouring resort town of Vail. The contrast between the two places is astonishingly stark, given that they are only three miles apart. Whilst Vail was styled by architects and designers on Alpine Bavaria, Minturn was styled by grizzly prospectors looking only as far as the next day.
Vail was built 80 years after Minturn and when the contractors finished a day’s shift, they would head west to the Minturn Saloon. It was the place to go and 60 years on, despite some remodeling and ownership changes, it remains exactly that. All those who know Vail, know the Minturn Saloon. Rather like the Woody Creek Tavern in Aspen, it has fostered a strong patronage over the years and when the doors open at 3pm, the bar fills at a speed to suggest that this is a special and loved destination. As always it is the people that make the places and this bar attracts a rich variety of clientele.
Part of the saloon’s appeal was that it was directly accessible by skis, by car, by foot and by horse and it therefore became something of a vortex at the end of the day. By the 1970s, the Minturn not only attracted cowboys, builders and miners, but the new bohemian hipster crowd from over the hill.
I am always drawn to the visual contrasts afforded to a filmmaker when a wild frontier destination is fused with glamour. This was the premise for this story. I saw a chance to play with the cold winter light that day and the result works pleasingly well in colour.
Alessandra Ambrosio is one of the leading models in the world and it was a pleasure to work with her. She certainly killed her look and showed why she is at the top of her game. We would also like to thank Austin Akers for the use of the beautiful 1956 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing.” – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 70” in (142.2 cm x 177.8 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 85” in (180.3 cm x 215.9 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 47” in (93.98 cm x 119.4 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 62” (132.1 cm x 157.5 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.
Russian Roulette
Crested Butte, Colorado – 2024
“The most authentic old saloons of the Wild West should still evoke a sense of unease in any first-time visitor. Even if it is only fleeting; the vibe should be territorial and uncompromising. All eyes are on the visitor and those eyes are menacing and judgemental. Of course, these days, it is all for show and friendships are soon made, but there is an overriding sense that bad things did once happen here. It would be very disappointing to enter a frontier bar to learn that nothing immoral had ever occurred under its roof.
The lore of the American West would suggest that in the olden days, bars were loosely governed and behaviour was unpredictable. Life was cheap, and entering a bar at the wrong time could be a fatal mistake. It was Russian Roulette and the default position was to be armed and wary.
This tableaux is a giddy ode to these saloon bars dotted around frontier towns in the Wild West. It was taken in Kochevar’s Saloon, in the old mining town of Crested Butte, Colorado. The walls of Kochevar’s – which include a century old roulette table – are a rich museum to the American west. If those walls could talk, they would no doubt tell many a story of character rich women, gambling feuds, drunken outlaws and cowboy capitalists. It was a place singularly characterised by the disposable moral fibre of its clientele.
It was such fun to do this shoot and I thank Brazilian supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio for playing the saloon girl with good energy: despite the nearby presence of a 1000lb bison”. – David Yarrow
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56" x 76” in (142.2 cm x 193 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 91” in (180.3 cm x 231.1 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 50” in (93.98 cm x 127 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 65” (132.1 cm x 165.1 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.