The Rookie
Montana, USA – 2021
A treasure trove of characters in a dive bar saloon in Western Montana. The question is, who would you want as your partner? Do you go for perceived experience or looks?
The suave gentleman on the left looks the part, but he could be a little callow and raw. It may pay to go with the menace to his left. Looks can be deceiving. The wolf carries an assertive confidence and seems to be holding court, but he is, after all, a wolf. Singer and entertainer Ciara looks too good to be playing pool and surely she can’t have much experience hustling in pool bars? It’s beneath her. But how can you turn her down?
The answer is to go with the character on the left – he is one of the best performing rookies of all time.
Russell Wilson’s Rookie year at the Seattle Seahawks (the 2012 season) was the stuff of legends. He was named NFL Rookie of the Year and took the Seahawks to within one game of the Superbowl. (This despite being 75th in the 2012 NFL draft). He only had to wait 12 months to cement his status.
In early 2014, Wilson led the Seahawks to their first Superbowl victory in which they trounced the marginal favourites, the Denver Broncos, 43 – 8 in New Jersey. This is still the largest ever Superbowl victory for the underdog. The game attracted a viewing audience in America of 111 million which, at the time, was a historical record for a US television broadcast.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Image: 56” x 83" (143 cm x 211 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 94" (171 cm x 239 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
- Image: 37” x 55" (94 cm x 140 cm)
- Framed: 48” x 66" (122 cm x 168 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.
Get The FXXX Off My Boat
Marina del Rey, LA, California – 2021
My first collaboration with the real Wolf of Wall Street – Jordan Belfort – in the autumn of 2019, resulted in the coveted image -The Wolves of Wall Street. That photograph has now sold out and I was honored that both Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese signed a copy which sold for $200,000 at Art Miami at the end of that year.
In May of this year we had an opportunity to shoot our sequel off the coast of Marina del Rey in Los Angeles. I had so much more light to play with than in the dealing room shot and my instinct was to be bold in the amount of content I could include in one frame. Indeed, I had to work on the basis that the one frame had to tell the full story, otherwise the job would not have been done properly. This is one of the challenges of still photography.
Once we sourced our necessarily large yacht, I pondered intensely over the make up of the content and the composition of that content. The wolf would always be the centre stage, but the layered nature of the front of the boat offered my best chance of an expansive narrative around and behind the wolf. My favored shooting time was an hour before sunset and from mid afternoon I had built up an intricate story board in my mind.
About 6.45pm out on the open sea, all the constituent parts came together and I think everyone involved should be proud of the role they played in creating the parody. I would contend that if any one of the constituents of the photograph was removed, the picture would be materially lessened. It needed the giant lobsters; the spray of the champagne; the FBI; the helicopter; both wolves and even the girl on the top deck. Luckily they were all on board – this was not a day to have after thoughts.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12:
- Image: 56” x 79" (143 cm x 201 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 90" (171 cm x 229 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12:
- Image: 37” x 52" (94 cm x 133 cm)
- Framed: 48” x 63" (122 cm x 161 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
The Bills
Southwest Montana, USA – 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 behavior 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 recognised 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 Corporation team at the Flying D.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12:
- Image: 37” x 100" (94 cm x 254 cm)
- Framed: 48” x 111" (122 cm x 282 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.
1992
For some time I had yearned to do my own interpretation of the advert with a still photograph and I secured Cindy’s involvement, who in turn secured Pepsi’s approval (given the implicit tribute, why would Pepsi say “no”?). The Halfway House has not changed at all from 1992 and neither really has Cindy. The rest of the props were easy to replicate.
The issue was the two boys who were never in the same frame as Cindy in the advert and would be even harder to acknowledge or incorporate into one photograph whilst maintaining the narrative. The idea I went along with was to use wolves instead – that way I could introduce a new angle without losing the integrity of the adaptation.
Why wolves? Well it is a metaphor for all the men who have wanted to be at that gas station the next time Cindy Crawford turned up to fill up with gas, or indeed buy a soft drink. I wanted them to be looking keenly towards Cindy and the only way that could work in my set was to have them approaching her from behind. Since the roof was down in the car, it made total sense for them to have stealthily sneaked into the back seats whilst she went about her business. There is the necessary hunger and yearning in their disposition.
Cindy looks fabulous and makes the image which we all agreed had to be in colour. I must make mention of Peter Savic – the legendary hair stylist who worked with Cindy on the original commercial. How lucky am I that 29 years later he came back to the Halfway House for the reunion and styled Cindy’s hair again?
DYP would like to make it clear that the “wolf ” in the image is actually a domesticated Tamaskan dog – which have similar facial characteristics to Wolves.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Image: 56” x 84" (143 cm x 214 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 95" (171 cm x 242 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
-
Image size: 37” x 56" (94 cm x 143 cm)
-
Framed size: 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.
American Beauty
On this 1950s set – built in Santa Clarita near Los Angeles – my excellent production team gave me the chance to create something very special. American icon Cindy Crawford would be my lead, so there was a little bit of pressure to be on my game, especially as Cindy had made the location famous from the iconic 1992 Pepsi commercial. The gas station and cafe haven’t changed much and neither, in fact, has Cindy.
My preconception was to use the panel lighting to showcase Cindy in an intense rain storm. The rain would pop much more than it would do in daylight. I could see the potential of the concept; the set, complete with 1950s LA cop cars, was authentic and all the angles worked. There was an intended nod to the wonderful movie – LA Confidential – but the problem was that her period evening glam look would be immediately vulnerable to the rain.
In my creative processing beforehand I had established in my mind that there could not be many retakes of this shoot. Her hair, so intelligently styled by the legendary Peter Savic, would be in trouble after just a few seconds; quickly followed by her evening dress. We had at best 10 seconds to get the shot.
What I knew was that Cindy is a trooper and indeed she smashes this picture. There are few people that would perform so professionally under such circumstances. She is as good as it gets and this picture is made by her, not me.
I would like to thank Cindy’s excellent A team of Peter Savic, Nicole Allowitz, Jennifer Jacobs and Sam Visser. As for Cindy, it is always a treat to work with the very best. A true American Beauty inside and out.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Image: 61” x 56" (155 cm x 143 cm)
- Framed: 72” x 67" (183 cm x 171 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
- Image size: 40” x 37" (102 cm x 94 cm)
- Framed size: 51” x 48" (130 cm x 122 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.
Americana
The roll out of the road system in America accelerated geographical mobility and the pursuit of the American dream. The country is, and always will be, the home of the road trip. Motorbikes and roadside diners and gas stations became enduring cultural symbols of America.
Meanwhile, the Harley Davidson evolved into an iconic American brand and bikers themselves carved their own archetype and story in a rapidly developing society. There was a spirit of freedom captured so well in the 1969 movie Easy Rider and by bands such as the Eagles, who encouraged us to “take it easy”.
Whilst I did not take this photograph standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and whilst none of the bikers look remotely like Peter Fonda, there is a deliberate nostalgic nod to a freewheeling era in American history. My goal was to make a photograph to elicit memories of the America we once knew.
But this vignette is, of course, completed by perhaps America’s most loved supermodel – Cindy Crawford. We could not possibly use any other person in this shoot, as the set we had chosen was the very diner she made famous in the iconic Pepsi advert of 1992.
There may be no cowboys in this photograph or baseball bats or country music references, but there is enough to make it quintessential Americana.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12:
- Image: 56” x 56" (143 cm x 143 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 67" (171 cm x 171 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
- Image size: 37” x 37" (94 cm x 94 cm)
- Framed size: 48” x 48" (122 cm x 122 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.
Brutus
Brutus
Alaska, USA – 2021
This is a huge coastal bear; a living version of the stuffed ones that adorn the airports of lodges and airports in Alaska. They are bigger on the coast than in the inland tundra and that draws me to areas such as Kamishak Bay and the river that runs into it.
Adult bears draw our breath the most when they are standing as that is when their shoulders, their bulk and their menace are amplified. The average adult male coastal bear weighs five times as much as an average adult man and in many bear pictures – including the majority of mine – this is not adequately conveyed. Sometimes a wet bear can look a bit like an oversized dog and leave the cameraman frustrated that the encounter has been disserved.
But not here. A true first for me and an encounter I will long remember. There was a huge amount of luck involved and then at the key moment, just a little steel. I am low in the water and the bear is towering above me – there is no room for camera shake.
It was a fairly miserable day weather wise, but actually I think that the rainfall helps the image. Sometimes I work in a studio, but this was about as far from a studio as it is possible to be.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 64” x 56" in (162.56 cm x 142.24 cm)
- Framed Image: 79” x 71” in (200.66 cm x 180.34 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 43” x 37" in (109.22 cm x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Image: 58" x 52" (147.32 cm x 132.08 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.
Django
Django
Montana, USA – 2021
My fear of the mundane has no immediate cure and my commitment to western revisionism probably aggravates the condition as this is a well-trodden genre with no room for being dull.
As soon as I had convinced the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson and Wilson and GRAMMY-Award winning singer / songwriter – Ciara – to come to Montana to participate in my unhinged madness, we got to work on narratives and storyboards. I liked the idea of building some final frontier sets but that in itself is hardly groundbreaking. Sure, we gave the saloon a name that referred to Montana’s celebrity guests, but that did not quench my thirst. This was an opportunity to push a few boundaries.
Ultimately three decisions coalesced to make the difference and turn an idea into something of which we are all proud. The first was the styling: we hired for Ciara the best we know – Mariel Haenn and her partner Rob Zangardi, in LA. Mariel styles Cara Delevingne and so works with us regularly. I gave her team a simple directive – “post-Civil War badass”. Mariel and Rob don’t need much more than that and Ciara looks ridiculously good and on point. Meanwhile, for Russell’s stylist Alicia Sereno, she did a first class job of making Russell look every bit as badass as Ciara. They both owned their looks.
The second call was to shoot in a rainstorm – an unrelenting one. As a storyteller, I have always enjoyed inclement weather, but I knew we would have to make the rain, not ask Russell and Ciara to wait for a storm mid-summer. I studied the rain scenes from Paul Greengrass’s recent western – News of the World – with Tom Hanks and the effect added such mood and textural detail to Hanks’ face and clothes that I could not remove the prompt from my head. To use rain in this shot was a good decision.
The third decision was, of course, to set the building on fire. This is not an easy thing to do from a practical perspective and it meant shooting at night to make the most of the effect. But again, the decision paid off – perhaps a little better than we could have imagined.
Russell and Ciara make for strong doubles for Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington in Tarantino’s bad ass western “Django Unchained”. On this one occasion, I believe that I can get away with the reference, albeit Django burnt down a plantation mansion in Mississippi, not a saloon on the banks of the Madison River in Montana. It was a powerful and authentic film, but I think this is a powerful and authentic photograph.
A great team effort and a hell of a result.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Image: 56” x 85" (142 cm x 216 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 96" (171 cm x 244 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
- Image size: 37” x 56" (94 cm x 143 cm)
- Framed size: 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.
Pebble Beach
Pebble Beach
Alaska, USA – 2021
I think two elements often need to coalesce to create a memorable bear image in Alaska; proximity to a big brute of a bear in the first place and then a transcending level of context. I have come close before, but never emphatically nailed it. We have had far more failure than success.
Then in mid-August 2021 I had my moment. These types of portraits demand a wider narrative and the snow and the mountains give a very clear nod to life in the final frontier. I still can’t quite believe our luck, but then again, we have put in the hours up here over the years.
I am crystal clear in my mind who I have to thank for this capture; our mountain guide Connor Ketchum. We had worked with him before and knew that his instinctive reaction and control of the river boat were of Olympic standard. He knows the fast-flowing river and its varying depth well and can manœuvre his boat with speed and sensitivity to a bear’s behaviour. Without his skill we would never have had the bear in this position with the mountain range behind.
The pebble beach above the river bank offered a wonderful stage for the bear to visually “pop” against a stunning backdrop, but we had to get there in seconds and Connor achieved this with grace and precision. Most importantly of all, by turning the engine off and drifting into position, the bear’s behaviour was unaffected. He just walked regally towards us in his role of “Boss of the river”. Had his path altered as a result of our presence, there would have been no picture. The game was won by speed and stealth.
In the summer of 2021, we used bush pilots over a dozen times in Alaska and had some disheartening days. That is the nature of the game, but on our final day we had this two-minute encounter at the edge of the world. It made everything worthwhile and we thank our friend from Arkansas – the legend that is Connor Ketchum. Without him there was no photograph and we are again reminded of the people that help us on a daily basis.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 12:
- Image: 40” x 98" (102 cm x 249 cm)
- Framed: 51” x 109" (127 cm x 277 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12:
- Image: 27” x 66" (69 cm x 168 cm)
- Framed: 38” x 77" (97 cm x 381 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.
Persons of Interest
For this shoot, I took the Seattle Seahawks quarterback and his wife to my favourite shooting location in the world – the Pioneer Bar – high up in the mountains of West Montana. I wanted to be in command of as much as possible and with my intimate knowledge of the location, I knew I could muster together a smorgasbord of western archetypes to complement the rock star American couple. I also know the lighting and the angles inside out. It was a home fixture for me.
My preconception was to build a vignette that lived and breathed cinema whilst playing on the importance of cultural refinement in the Wild West. To that end, I thought it would be playful to dress Russell and Ciara in black tie so as to accentuate the narrative. Finding the extras was easy – they are mostly drinking buddies.
There are no weak characters in this shot; there is simply no room for them. In fashioning together so many ethnicities, I hope his photograph celebrates the diversity of America and reminds us that the pursuit of the American Dream was, and is, inclusive.
Revlon Ambassadors have been filmed in many locations, but perhaps none offer the storied past of the Pioneer Bar. Ciara smashed this look, but I soon discovered, she kind of smashes every look.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Image: 56” x 100" (142 cm x 254 cm)
- Framed: 67” x 111" (170 cm x 214 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20:
- Image: 37" x 48" (94 cm x 122 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 59" (122 cm x 150 cm)
MEDIUM - Edition of 20:
- Image: 45" x 80" (114 cm x 203 cm)
- Framed: 56" x 91" (142 cm x 231 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.