Dead Man’s Chest

Anguilla, Caribbean – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

I hope this image is identified as having some of my trademarks. Every inch of the frame sweats and every person within the frame firmly stakes claim to his or her presence. I was greedy in the amount of information I wanted in the picture and for it to come off, I needed luck as well as strong communication with everyone on set. It has the cinematic feel that I often strive for and I think in time I will look back very fondly on that evening. At the moment it is all a little fresh and the subject matter is sufficiently adrift from my normal work that it is difficult to find context. But my sense is that it is a special photograph.

The goal was to attain compositional harmony amidst the chaos of the beach landing, which was not that easy an objective as this landing was for real. This raw and rocky coastline in Anguilla is no studio. In retrospect it is remarkable that not only are the faces of the six male pirates in the landing party all in view but they also show collective endeavour. They had enough to think about dealing with the boat in the tide and maybe the truth is that they weren’t in role at all.

Whilst getting soaked, out of my right eye I was checking the barrel in the sea, as I didn’t want to lose it behind the boat. There was quite a bit of multi- tasking going on in that one minute. Keeping a watch on two Rastafarian friends on the rocks was a further dimension. It was quite late in the day and by that time, I couldn’t be too sure of their footing given their industrial consumption of weed during the day.

Josie Canseco is made for shots like this. The more attitude she has, the more striking her appearance, and that’s why I cast her more in bad ass roles than necessarily beauty roles. In this series I wanted women to play more of a lead than is traditional in most pirate narratives. Most pirate productions are too male led.

I think most of us have a secret love for the pirate; there is something visceral about a life lived out-with the law. The subject certainly makes for good stories and this photograph could jump out of the pages of the storybook.

Available sizes

Standard - Edition of 12

48" x 67" inches framed (3” Mat)
52” x 71” inches framed (5” Mat)

Large - Edition of 12

67" x 96" inches framed (3” Mat)
71” x 100" inches framed (5” Mat)

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.

by admin

The Old Man And The Sea

Anguilla and South Africa – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach.”

Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea – 1952

The success of The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway’s last novel – made him an international celebrity. The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, tells the story of Santiago, an ageing, experienced fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish.

In the famous prose copied above, the lions symbolise Santiago’s lost youth as well as his pride (a group of lions being a “pride”). In this way, the lions also symbolise Santiago’s affinity with nature. Now that Santiago is no longer young, and has lost his friends, family, and strength, he sees the lions only in his dreams.

I have long wanted to tell this story in my own way, with the lions I work with in Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary, of which I am proud to be an ambassador. My friendship with Kevin goes back a long way and the mutual trust allows us to explore creative ideas that would otherwise be over ambitious.

When shooting a composite image like this, I prefer to shoot almost sequentially; the longer the gap and the moment can be lost. I saw an opportunity in January 2022 to shoot the beach scene in the Caribbean and then within the week complete the job in South Africa.

We were in Anguilla working on our Pirates of the Caribbean project and Hemingway was never far from my mind, after all Cuba, where he wrote and located the book, was less than 1000 miles away. Early on in our Anguilla adventure, I met Tasha, an old Rastafarian fisherman boasting the longest hair I had ever seen in a man and I knew immediately that he was my Santiago.

He was a filmmaker’s gold so long as you caught him before his first strong joint of the day, around 6.30 am, but luckily that was exactly the time I wanted to shoot in order to eliminate directional ambient light.

My guidance to Tasha was to look like he was half awake and dreaming. There has never been an easier direct to an actor in film history as this is after all his default position. With little trouble, I left the Caribbean with my first piece of the jigsaw.

Only five days later we were in South Africa and an enormous canvas from my shoot with ‘Santiago’ had already been erected in the veldt. In front of the canvas the production team had made a beach resembling the white beaches of Anguilla. I recognise that over the years, production has become easier as we work with the very best of the best wherever we go and it does make a difference.

The final piece of the jigsaw was the hardest. Hemingway talked of lions – not a single lion – and I knew therefore that I needed two male lions in the frame if my interpretation of Santiago’s dream was to be pure.

Kevin walks his lions out most days, so they were used to early morning exercise; the only change this time was that there was a third party in a cage and a beach 100 miles from Pretoria – a first for Transvaal!

The end result gives me pleasure. It tells the story of The Old Man and the Sea as well as I could have hoped.

Available sizes

LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP

Image Size: 56” x 93" in (142.24 cm x 236.22 cm)
Framed Image: 71” x 108” in (180.34 cm x 274.32 cm)

STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP

Image Size: 37” x 62” in (93.98 cm x 157.48 cm)
Framed Image: 52” x 77" in (132.08 cm x 195.58 cm)

by admin

Succession

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

It’s been quite a revelation to work with Nikon’s new flagship camera, the Z9, in Africa this week. I don’t think photography is really about cameras, but having said that, this new model is so damn good, I can’t really imagine life without it and that’s after just four days in the field.

Speaking of which, I can’t imagine life without Kevin Richardson – The Lion Whisperer. We have worked together now for eight years, and the length of that friendship has fostered both trust and understanding. This image from last night is fairly special and is a testimony to the relationship; well that and a camera body that performs exceptionally in the most challenging of briefs.

Kevin continues to do so much to raise awareness of the plight of the lion and I am fortunate to have him in my life. Without him, there is no picture.

We have entitled this image Succession in part because Nikon’s history moves on again and iconic bodies that I have used like the FM2, the F3 and the D850 must now raise their hats to the greatest camera in Nikon’s history. The name is also fitting because the lion in this image – Yame – rescued some years ago from a discredited petting centre in Spain has succeeded Thor and Vayetse as being the poster lion within Kevin’s care and an ambassador for lions everywhere. He is in sensational condition and is just a little handsome – as this photograph shows.

Available sizes

Standard - Edition of 12

48" x 73" inches framed (3” Mat)
52” x 74” inches framed (5” Mat)

Large - Edition of 12

67" x 104" inches framed (3” Mat)
71” x 108" inches framed (5” Mat)

by admin

I Am Black Panther

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2021

Archival Pigment Print

The creative concept was to build a set in South Africa that allowed for a sense of collective tribal adulation. After all, our lead would be Wakanda – the superhero. Zulus seemed the right choice of tribe; they live locally to the shoot and are excitable and energized, especially when asked to go back in time and celebrate their rich heritage. It was not hard to find 100 extras, even with a 2 am pick up.

Kevin Richardson – The Lion Whisperer – looks after a handful of black leopards in his sanctuary and as with his lions, there is no possibility for anyone other than Kevin to be in an open area with them. Black leopards are part of the panther family and can give a human a very nasty bite. They should not be underestimated and safety is always the primary concern. It is, however, possible to work from inside a heavy cage and that was the path we chose for this set.

My preference is to shy away from long lenses and magnification if possible and this tends to mean being close to the lead subject. The cat moves so quickly that depth of field will always need to be sacrificed for shutter speed. It is a balancing act, as this image is nothing without the chaos behind and this needs to be given some detail. The more context that I could include, the wider the narrative and the fuller the story.

The Superhero movie Black Panther was a colossal success, grossing over $1.4bn and my instincts were to try to make a cinematic image fit for a wide screen. There needed to be Zulus to the left, to the right and most certainly above and behind – a visual human vortex of strength and territorial-ism. In this work, there is a palpable sense of trespassing into another world – a Marvel world.

The Africa I know is chaotic, frenzied and often daunting. This photograph leans on these references. Of course, there are pockets of serenity – but not for this storyline.

AVAILABLE SIZES:

Large: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Image Size: 56” x 96” in (142.24 cm x 243.84 cm)
Framed Image: 71” x 111” in (180.34 cm x 281.94 cm)

Standard: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Image Size: 37” x 63” in (93.98 cm x 160.02 cm)
Framed Image: 52” x 78” in (132.08 cm x 198.12 cm)

by admin

Catwalk

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2021

Archival Pigment Print

In early 2015, I took a photograph in an old saloon high in the mountains of western Montana. The image of a large adult wolf walking purposefully towards my camera, whilst life in the bar continued as normal behind him, became coveted. I was flattered that the last available edition sold for $100,000 at Sotheby’s a few years later. I think the price paid was a tribute to the magnificence of the wolf as much as it was to the authenticity of the concept.

There was a compositional balance to that image and whilst the barman and the customers were way out of the focal range of the camera lens, their anonymity added to the narrative and didn’t detract the eye from the wolf. Focus can deliberately exclude as well as include, and in layered images such as the Wolf of Main Street, this approach works well as it directs the viewer without losing the wider story. In retrospect, the photograph was a pivotal moment in my career and the barman that day – Thomas Rosenthal – has become a dear friend and is now part of the DY production team in America.

We borrowed from the depth offered by that saloon in many sets around the world over the next few years. Whilst I am all for fresh challenges, if a concept works, I tend to go back. In 2021 my ambition was to leverage my long-term relationship with Kevin Richardson – The Lion Whisperer – to create something special in his lion sanctuary north east of Pretoria. The project was delayed by COVID as South Africa only really opened up in the autumn, but this gave the original premise time to marinate in my mind. I wanted to glorify the lion’s splendour – as did Kevin – but I also wanted to build a much wider story around the key subject.

As we spitballed a few ideas around, two governing principles became clear. The first was that the lion could only be on set if I was in a cage and no one, other than Kevin, was in his domain. This is not just for safety reasons, it is also because we had to remove any conceivable distraction for Vayetse, my go to lion within Kevin’s care. The second conclusion was that we should build a set predicated on compositional mathematics before anything else. In other words, I knew my lens and camera settings before we started construction, not on the week of the shoot. There was a great deal of creative processing long before we arrived in South Africa as this was very much a picture that was going to be made, not taken.

In building the story, my instincts were to play on the vibe of a Paris Catwalk – after all, we had access not just to any cat to strut down our catwalk, but the King of Africa; a magnificent adult male lion. I have been to enough fashion shows in my life to know that it’s a theatre and the attendees tend to be united in their passion and behaviour. There may be more cultural refinement in the Paris fashion shows than at a club football match, but both theatres attract collective tribes.

This prompted me to indulge with the idea that we should incorporate a tribal crowd into the set – albeit a literal tribe not a metaphorical one. We were certainly in the right part of the world, the heartland of the Zulu people. The largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated population of 10-12 million, was within a morning’s drive of where we were shooting.

My plan was to bring around 100 adult Zulus to the set – all dressed in traditional attire and armed with spears and shields. The word went out and we had no shortage of applicants. With each and every member of the cast, we discussed whether there were any cultural appropriation issues in asking them to dress traditionally. As I have found with Native Americans, they said it would be a celebration of their culture; of which they were rightly proud.

To many the word “Zulu” evokes memories of Michael Cain in the 1964 British epic war film depicting the Battle of Rorke’s Drift between the British Army and the Zulus. Luckily that battle was 140 years ago and the script has changed. The Zulus on set could not have been more cooperative with this Brit and there was a carnival mood at breakfast despite many of them having been picked up at home at 2 am. It was one of the more memorable mornings of my career to be able to immerse myself in the uplifting energy of Zulu life.

Available sizes

Large: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Image Size: 56” x 85” in (142.24 cm x 215.9 cm)
Framed Image: 71” x 100” in (180.34 cm x 254 cm)

Standard: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Image Size: 37” x 56” in (93.98 cm x 142.24 cm)
Framed Image: 52” x 71” in (132.08 cm x 180.34 cm)

by admin

Paris

PARIS

Montana, USA – 2021

I had a few ideas as to how we would photograph Paris. The camera likes her, but therein lay the problem, she is one of the world’s most photographed people. The bedrock of creative art is authenticity and I was slightly running on empty as to how to raise the bar and be different. I was understandably conscious of the fact that Paris has been photographed by many of my peers, most famously perhaps by David LaChapelle in Paris for the front cover of Vanity Fair, when she was proclaimed New York’s leading “It Girl”.

The juxtaposition created by photographing her next to tough outlaws from the Wild West made conceptual sense, but I needed a narrative strong enough to make the portrait work. I felt there had to be a reason why this immaculately turned out and glossy celebrity would be hanging with a bunch of trouble makers in a dodgy saloon. It was important not just to play with contrasts, but to offer a reason as to why? If Reese Witherspoon’s character from Legally Blond had entered a dive bar in Boston’s South End to be confronted by some wise guys, the script would have legitimised why this union of contrasting stereotypes had occurred. I needed a “why”, not a “what” and that can be challenging to convey in a single still image.

I met with Paris and Carter a couple of days before the shoot and we talked around concepts. As we pondered over a few narratives, Carter, who has a private equity fund and is blessed with a razor smart mind, threw in the suggestion of Paris playing to a DJ role; after all it’s her comfort zone. The 100-year-old saloon I had chosen for the shoot offered a rather different vibe to a club in Ibiza, but that was the whole point. I immediately loved the idea – as did Paris – and we went to work.

Our Wild West anthology is now well developed and to incorporate her into this tapestry of composed close ups playing to the lore of the American West seemed to offer opportunity. It is our own comfort zone and we would simply give this story a contemporary twist by throwing in a DJ deck and one of the highest paid and well-known DJs in the world.

We decided to make Paris bling and her famous diamond headphones were a vital accessory. There was also just enough space to incorporate her pet chihuahua who arrived in his own little Louis Vuitton jumpsuit. My simple instructive to her was to play her music, enjoy herself and the rest would hopefully look after itself.

I think Paris did enjoy herself and the extras most certainly did. The end result works because she looks like she is in total control and embracing the venue. It was all very natural.

I don’t think the locals are going to forget that day in a hurry. As for us, well I guess we got our authenticity.

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 12:

Image: 56” x 75" (143 cm x 191 cm)
Framed: 67” x 86" (171 cm x 219 cm)

STANDARD - Edition of 12:

Image: 37” x 50” (94 cm x 127 cm)
Framed: 48” x 61” (122 cm x 155 cm)

by admin

Get The Fxxx Off My Boat (Colour)

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)

by admin

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)

by admin

Get The FXXX Off My Boat

Marina del Rey, LA, California – 2021

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)

by admin

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)

by admin

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Anguilla, Caribbean – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

Available sizes

Standard - Edition of 12

Large - Edition of 12

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Anguilla and South Africa – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

Available sizes

LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP

STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2022

Archival Pigment Print on 315gsm Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta Paper

Available sizes

Standard - Edition of 12

Large - Edition of 12

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2021

Archival Pigment Print

AVAILABLE SIZES:

Large: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Standard: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Dinokeng, South Africa – 2021

Archival Pigment Print

Available sizes

Large: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

Standard: Edition of 20 + 3 AP

DAVID YARROW

Locations

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 12:

STANDARD - Edition of 12:

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Marina del Rey, LA, California – 2021

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 12:

STANDARD - Edition of 12:

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Montana, USA – 2021

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 20:

STANDARD - Edition of 20:

DAVID YARROW

Locations

Marina del Rey, LA, California – 2021

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 12:

STANDARD - Edition of 12:

DAVID YARROW

Locations

The Bills

AVAILABLE SIZES:

LARGE - Edition of 12: