Something's Brewing
Virginia City, Montana 2019
This staged picture, in the virtual ghost town of Virginia City, has a compositional balance that I like; the wolf, the wolf’s shadow and the cowboys are all in the right place – which is fortunate given that the wolf was running towards me.
I have never used this old brewery building before in my storytelling because I worried that the facade was too high to fit in an image if there was also to be a cast immediately in front of it. There were two possible solutions – to move the story further away from the building, which would risk disassociation, or to get close to the building and try and capture the wolf with a true wide-angle lens, not easy at all and could risk ending with a lousy series of far lit loose shots. The whole building would be in for sure, but to work with a 28mm lens and a wolf is not to play the percentages.
We had no real choice but to go for the second option and roll the dice. We got lucky, but as someone once said “Luck is the residue of design”. A sharp shot on a 28 mm lens is pin pin sharp.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 67" (143 cm x 171 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 82" (171 cm x 209 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 47" (94 cm x 120 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 58" (122 cm x 148 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.
There Will Be Blood
Montana, USA – 2020
I have always wanted to name a photograph after this powerful Oscar winning movie – but the picture had to be strong and the content “bang on” appropriate.
The history of oil in so many ways mirrors the history of the world in the last 140 years and in America this holds very true, albeit the move west was fueled by so many other mineral resources as well as oil.
“Go West, young man, go West” is celebrated counsel from 1851 that was followed by millions and gave rise to final frontier towns, across swathes of Western America. The few communities that remain intact offer great potential as filming backdrop.
The key to this photograph was to remember that tight framing leads the eye and that the wolf had to be close to me – otherwise the image would fall flat. There was no room for dead space, but also there could be few errors in the positioning of the 15 people.
We shot this many times, but just one frame came off. It was not warm, and one was all we needed.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 84" (143 x 214 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 95" (171 cm x 242 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 56" (94 x 143 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 67" (122 cm x 171 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 Wolves Of Wall Street
Los Angeles, USA 2019
The concept of this photograph has been bouncing around in my head for over a year. We prepared for many months as it was clear to me that if we were to pay homage to The Wolf of Wall Street, we had to do it well. There was no point in doing it in a casual way – after all, Martin Scorsese is one of my heroes and his framing is so exceptional that we had to be at the top of our game not to materially underachieve in any recreation. It was the biggest production of my career.
The location of the abandoned office in Simi Valley outside Los Angeles was ideal for most of the cast – including Jordan Belfort – the real Wolf of Wall Street, but not so ideal for the wolves, as there was no working air conditioning inside. This meant importing huge AC units to keep the animals cool. The green room on the side of the dealing floor was transformed into a giant fridge for the day.
The final image is one of the most satisfying of my career. I wanted as many references to the film as possible – Cameron Dallas eating the goldfish, Jordan with his pen, the marching band, the dollar notes and the glitter. Both models – Kate Bock and Daniela Braga – smashed it in their roles, not easy with so much going on and a wolf charging down the table. Both Kate and Dany are at the top of their game and pivotal to this photograph.
Someone once said that the best pictures can be looked at for a very long time. On that level, this image wins. However, the key for me was to find out what the world’s most celebrated actor thought of this one snap shot in time. Without his approval, this photograph would lose some of its relevance. I was proud when he told me that it captured the very essence of Belfort.
We did it and I feel that we left nothing in the bucket in the conception and the execution. It is as good as I can do.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
MEDIUM (Signed by DiCaprio & Scorsese) - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 45" x 83" (115 cm x 211 cm)
- Framed: 56" x 94" (143 cm x 239 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 68" (94 cm x 173 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 79" (122 cm x 201 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 Wolf Of Main Street
Ghost Town, USA 2015
Sometimes the most engaging pictures just happen with no real forward planning, but rather a spontaneous reaction to a fresh canvas that just presents itself. This staged shot in a ghost town in Montana was one such occasion.
We had finished filming on a cold January morning and retreated to the only working premises in the deserted town to get warm and have a drink. Our refuge met every preconception of what a timeless wild west American inn should look like – a long wooden bar, wagon wheels on the ceiling, faded black and white photographs of the glory years, the odd moose head and of course a pool table.
My cameras were packed away, but I saw an opportunity. There was just enough light in the room to work an image that told a story of tough folk living at the last frontier.
I asked the bar owner, Rosie – who had a “seen it all before” look about him, if he had a problem with us bringing a wolf into the deserted bar. Not a normal request perhaps, but he welcomed the idea, only asking what the wolf liked to drink.
The central premise of the shot was that I wanted everyone to behave as if a wolf in a bar was the most normal occurrence in this part of the world – they should act with total indifference. The difficulty with the idea was that I had so little light to play with that my depth of focus would be measured in centimeters. The focus had to be the wolf’s eyes and everything else would just be a sketch that added context rather than detail.
It was clear that the wolf had to be higher than me or at least at my eye level and this required using the bar itself as his cat walk. Things were now getting a little out of hand but Rosie – who is now a good friend – was loving the unexpected course of his morning. We placed some chicken fillets around my neck and the wolf moved with some sense of excitement towards me and my Nikon.
The first effort didn’t work – the margin for error in my camera work was so limited, but after several attempts, I nailed it. Everyone played their part – Rosie behind the bar, the studious reader, the pool player and of course the chicken hungry wolf.
A large print of this image now hangs proudly behind the bar and has become a little tourist attraction itself. Given the 2014 film release, this image simply had to be called “The Wolf of Main Street”.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
- SOLD OUT
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 Usual Suspects
Montana, USA 2018
The first time that I set foot in Montana, I knew I was in a very special place. It was not just the majesty of the scenery, it was the characters that lived there. I have long had a visceral attraction to the Wild West and no State embodies the final frontier of America more than Montana. In the hills in the winter, there is a sense of timelessness. The clock seemingly stopped about 100 years ago.
We have spent the last few years networking in a village in the mountains. I have been there seven times and we have invested emotionally as well as financially in order to be able to tell stories with the camera. This week – on Robbie Burns night – appropriately enough – we had our reward. There was no point attempting this without a solid base of locals that genuinely wanted to help.
I know this bar in the mountains inside out and the locals know me. Everyone wanted a role
in the shoot, but we had to be selective. I wanted ex-convicts, wolf wranglers, wannabe Davey Crocketts and crazy old mountain men that are drunk by 11 am. But it needed more – the barmaid had to have the right look – as she would be pivotal to the image – as would the chosen mountain man. It would be a key juxtaposition. I found the girl – Roxanna Redfoot (what a name) – from Dallas and she was brilliant.
I knew I could rely on the wolf – I have worked with him before and so long as he didn’t lose interest, I had a chance. But there is no light in the bar – so it is all seat-of-the-pants stuff technically – there was no margin for error in focus. A flash gun would destroy the emotion and sense of place.
As I expected, most of the photographs were not sharp or someone messed up (including me). The composition, however, was always bang on, I just needed one stroke of luck – 1/125th
of a second that would capture Montana. I think we nailed it!
“The Usual Suspects”…indeed.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
Sold Out
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 Unusual Suspects
Virginia City, Montana, 2019
Of course, we have worked in this room many times before and I know my light, my angles and the minimal depth of focus. We called last year’s photograph of the mountain men at the bar “The Usual Suspects” as that is exactly what they were. Some of those men rarely leave the warmth of The Pioneer Bar in Virginia City throughout winter – in fact they hibernate there. It proved such a popular image and has sold out across the world – in some cases raising huge sums for charity. So, when we went back this year, we thought it would be fun to have an additional crew member – Cindy Crawford.
The word juxtaposition is over used in narrative, but I think we can get away with it here. The old boys may drink a bit and smoke a bit of weed, but they were on their very best behaviour that day – which is essentially still medieval. An international icon joining their party was not something they bargained for and at least one cowboy convinced himself it was the weed. We had to call the image “The Unusual Suspects” as a nod to her presence.
The composition, which I could control, had to be spot on, but there is no way that I could control the wolf. It is a low percentage game this and we only came away with one shot – but we got it. Cindy looks fantastically glamorous and a little “bad ass” in her role, but, as always, it is the mountain men that take away the Oscars. Roxanna Redfoot did a grand job too.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image size: 56” x 93" (142.24 cm x 236.22 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 67” x 104” (170.18 cm x 264.16 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 71” x 108” (180.34 cm x 274.32 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image size: 37” x 61" (93.98 cm x 154.94 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 48” x 72” (121.92 cm x 182.88 cm)
- Framed Image Size: 52” x 76" (132.08 cm x 193.04 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 Richest Hill in the World
Montana, USA 2018
I have wrestled with how I could convey the drama of a wolf encounter for some time. The problem, in my mind, was that I wanted the tension of proximity to be coupled with a palpable sense that the drama was yet to be played out – it could go either way. I wondered how Hitchcock would work this – it was not good enough to have distance between the two subjects as focus would then be an issue. The wolf and human needed to be equidistant from the camera to make them both sharp.
Then one day in Montana three years ago, high up in the mountains, I saw an abandoned farm truck not far from the main road. It had probably been there for over 60 years and was now just a rusty shell. It clearly offered potential to play out this concept but ideally I needed fresh snow on the bonnet and roof. The more virginal the snow cover the better.
This year I had my fresh snow and in Roxanna Redfoot, I had the perfect girl to cast in the role of the prey. The doors would not budge and she had to climb in through the broken window – but that was not a big deal for Roxanna even in tough temperatures. She is a rock star and I have no doubt that Hitchcock would have cast her at every opportunity.
It’s one of those images in which simply everything works.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 78" (143 x 198 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 89" (171 x 226 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 52" (94 x 132 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 63" (122 x 160 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 "Mile High" Club
Montana, USA – 2020
This is a club that now has too many members, but if there was an annual meeting, I doubt that many attendees would create as much interest as these two. I think the image has a Hitchcockian mood and we are left a little in suspense.
As soon as I saw that headframe, I felt a visceral urge to incorporate it and of course use the name. It was all too good to be true,
No one else can now do this – we got there first. As always Kate Bock smashes it – she never gets a role play or an attitude wrong.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 85" (143 x 216 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 96" (171 x 244 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 56" (94 x 143 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 67" (122 x 171 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 Chance Saloon
Virginia City, Montana 2019
To return to the Pioneer Bar in Virginia City, Montana is to return to my comfort zone and I feel an obligation to arrive with creative courage. We must push boundaries and not be lame in our conceptual processing. We have a free run here in the winter, when only 60 people live here and the Mayor only recently gave me the symbolic key to the city.
The group shots that I have photographed around the window end of the long bar have been well received and are difficult to top, especially as the last one included Cindy Crawford.
My premise this time was to markedly up the number of people in the picture (the most we had used before was six). This puts pressure on both the construction and the casting, as one lame character can become a tension point and ruin the whole image. We have all experienced the difficulty of group pictures on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving.
I think Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie works so well, not just because of the number of people in the image, but because every character is an additive. It is my favourite selfie.
We assembled a strong cast – the models Kate Bock from Cleveland and Olivia Culpo from Charlotte, native American families from Northern Montana and then, of course, my favourite local mountain men. The hair and makeup/styling team, led by Nikki Parisi out of LA, was outstanding. My direction was 150 years ago Wild West – appropriate as in the 1860s, over 15,000 lived in Virginia City and The Pioneer Bar would have been very busy.
All 11 characters played their roles well that day, but perhaps the picture is stolen by a lovely 85-year-old lady called Mary from Butte, Montana. We nearly called the picture “There’s Something About Mary” but perhaps her hair was not quite right.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 56" x 97" (143 x 247 cm)
- Framed: 67" x 108" (171 cm x 275 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 37" x 64" (94 x 163 cm)
- Framed: 48" x 75" (122 x 191 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 And Us
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 74" x 56" (188 x 143 cm)
- Framed: 85" x 67" (216 cm x 170 cm)
STANDARD - Edition Size: 12
- Image: 49" x 37" (125 x 94 cm)
- Framed: 60" x 48" (153 cm x 122 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.