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)
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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.
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.