The Last Days of Summer
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“No island in the world elicits a greater sense of golden idleness and a freewheeling love of the pleasures of life than the Italian island of Capri. As far back as 500 BC, the Greeks saw it as a rocky paradise of hedonism and much more recently they were followed by the Marquis de Sade and Oscar Wilde. Even if only half the stories of the debauchery in Capri are true, it has been a good host island to those who believe that life is for living.
There is a unique beauty to the place and a refined simplicity that seduced Hollywood in the 1950s and Jacqueline Kennedy not long after. I sense that Capri does not have to try too hard, because it doesn’t really need to; everything is there and most of it always will be. There is security in the longevity of tenure.
The island’s greatest trick is to offer a sense of belonging to visitors. Our cousins from across the pond, who come every year in their thousands, call it “little America”. That’s quite a stretch, but no doubt there is a century long love affair between America and Capri.
The island’s iconic rock formation – The Faraglioni – is the geological pantheon of the island and I knew that at some stage this summer I would use its vertical grandeur as a backdrop in my European storytelling. Of course, these sea stacks are over photographed, and I needed a fresh foreground that played to the lore of the island. It takes time to determine the right location to shoot from as so many angles have become a little generic.
There is one land location near Marina Piccola where I could take an old Vespa and this was a shot I hadn’t seen before. Logistically it’s not that easy to get access with a bike. Just after sunrise, the rocks are kissed from behind by gentle sunlight and I knew that if I shot into the rising sun, I could engineer a rather dreamy canvas.
The girls played their roles exactly as directed: I wanted both sexual confidence and a sense that their behaviour was not always coming from the highest moral drawer. That would be fitting for an island blessed by an intoxicating sense of fun and freedom.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 103” in (142.2 cm x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 118” in (180.3 cm x 299.7 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 71” in (93.98 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 86” in (132.1 cm x 218.4 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 Last Days of Summer (B&W)
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“No island in the world elicits a greater sense of golden idleness and a freewheeling love of the pleasures of life than the Italian island of Capri. As far back as 500 BC, the Greeks saw it as a rocky paradise of hedonism and much more recently they were followed by the Marquis de Sade and Oscar Wilde. Even if only half the stories of the debauchery in Capri are true, it has been a good host island to those who believe that life is for living.
There is a unique beauty to the place and a refined simplicity that seduced Hollywood in the 1950s and Jacqueline Kennedy not long after. I sense that Capri does not have to try too hard, because it doesn’t really need to; everything is there and most of it always will be. There is security in the longevity of tenure.
The island’s greatest trick is to offer a sense of belonging to visitors. Our cousins from across the pond, who come every year in their thousands, call it “little America”. That’s quite a stretch, but no doubt there is a century long love affair between America and Capri.
The island’s iconic rock formation – The Faraglioni – is the geological pantheon of the island and I knew that at some stage this summer I would use its vertical grandeur as a backdrop in my European storytelling. Of course, these sea stacks are over photographed, and I needed a fresh foreground that played to the lore of the island. It takes time to determine the right location to shoot from as so many angles have become a little generic.
There is one land location near Marina Piccola where I could take an old Vespa and this was a shot I hadn’t seen before. Logistically it’s not that easy to get access with a bike. Just after sunrise, the rocks are kissed from behind by gentle sunlight and I knew that if I shot into the rising sun, I could engineer a rather dreamy canvas.
The girls played their roles exactly as directed: I wanted both sexual confidence and a sense that their behaviour was not always coming from the highest moral drawer. That would be fitting for an island blessed by an intoxicating sense of fun and freedom.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 103” in (142.2 cm x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 118” in (180.3 cm x 299.7 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 71” in (93.98 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 86” in (132.1 cm x 218.4 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.
Octopussy (Colour)
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
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 51” in (93.98 cm x 129.5 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 66” in (132.1 cm x 167.6 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.
Octopussy
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
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 51” in (93.98 cm x 129.5 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 66” in (132.1 cm x 167.6 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.
Positano (Colour)
Amalfi Coast, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 93” in (142.2 cm x 236.2 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 108” in (180.3 cm x 274.3 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 62” in (93.98 cm x 157.5 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 77” in (132.1 cm x 195.6 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.
Positano
Amalfi Coast, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 93” in (142.2 cm x 236.2 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 108” in (180.3 cm x 274.3 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 62” in (93.98 cm x 157.5 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 77” in (132.1 cm x 195.6 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.
Diego
Atrani, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Prin
“In retrospect, I owe Diego Maradona a great deal; without him, I would not have had the provenance of a career starting all the way back to that extraordinary World Cup in Mexico in 1986 which he owned, both metaphorically and literally. I got lucky on the day of the final and the photograph of him, arms aloft with the trophy, remains one of the most important of my life.
But Neapolitans had gotten even luckier when their debt-ridden club bought Diego Maradona from Barcelona in the summer of 1984. It was an enormous financial gamble for a club teetering on insolvency and history now looks back fondly on the courage of the owner Corrado Ferlaino.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of Maradona to the city – no sportsman has ever offered such level of redemption and hope to an otherwise disadvantaged community and when Maradona’s Napoli won the Italian title in 1987, his legacy was secure. To this day, many Neapolitans have two paintings above their bed – Jesus Christ and Maradona. It was an intoxicating love affair between man and city masterfully articulated in the Asif Kapadia 2019 documentary “Maradona”, which briefly features my photograph from 1986.
For a generation now, the giant murals of Maradona, dotted around Naples and the neighbouring towns, have become tourist destinations in themselves. They are part of the aesthetic fabric of this most magical and raw part of Europe. Diego was so much more than just a sportsman; he was a modern-day saviour in this godfearing and deeply spiritual place.
My idea was to use a Maradona mural as a background layer in a celebration of life in the wider Naples area. The styling and props were necessarily skewed towards the time when Maradona still played for Napoli, and I sensed the need for a busy street narrative. I wanted to evoke a very definite sense of place. There is nowhere quite like it in the world.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 98” in (142.2 cm x 248.9 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 113” in (180.3 cm x 287 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” in (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.
The Beach Boys
Atrani, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“The beach at Atrani on the Amalfi Coast may lack the pristine white grandeur of the beaches of Pampelonne in St Tropez, and it comes without illicit tales of Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim or the international jet set, but it is no poor cousin, as it boasts of as timeless and historic a backdrop as any beach in the world. It is picture postcard Italy at its celestial best.
Telling a story with a backdrop as visually arresting as this has its challenges; it is easy to fall into the trap of being gratuitous. I was not the first photographer to stand here and I won’t be the last. In the same way that it is creatively timid to simply plonk a cowboy in front of the Grand Canyon, I knew it would be artistically lame to take an individual portrait in front of that famous stretch of the Amalfi Coast.
I found some inspiration from Mario Testino’s work in Copacabana Beach in Rio some 26 years ago and I am never ashamed of being a sponge. As Ansel Adams instructed us, “photography is often about the pictures of others”, but we just need to execute in our own way.
The beach boys I used that day were all Neapolitans and I told them to enjoy themselves with Brooks Nader – a leading Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and a girl with absurd energy levels. This was not their hardest day at the office, but equally, they had to be as natural and as free as the seas to their left.
Photographing a group is never easy; most images don’t stack up as one person can tend to kill an image. But there is a unity of joy in this image and everyone is bang on. It could have been taken 50 years ago and that was very much my intent.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 63” in (142.2 cm x 160 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 78” in (180.3 cm x 198.1 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 42” in (93.98 cm x 106.7 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 57” in (132.1 cm x 144.8 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.
The Fisherman's Wife
Fiordo Di Furore, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“Antonio, my friend and fixer in Positano, is rightly proud of his 80-year-old father, Vito, who has been an octopus and lobster fisherman on the Amalfi Coast all his working life. That is a tour of duty that currently spans 62 years and there is no sign of an imminent denouement. He has leveraged his familiarity with the Tyrrhenian Sea to maximum effect and leads a full and happy life.
Like so many skilled Neapolitan traders, he has no elevated sense of worth, simply regarding himself as the current incumbent of a family practice passed down from generation to generation. There is a palpable sense of custodianship and duty that humbled us all.
It is not easy to navigate a fishing boat into the visually arresting and tight Fiordo di Furore, but I knew I wanted to film Vito working his craft in there because the backdrop is ridiculously good. It is one of the great sights in the whole of Italy, but that is a known known, and by 9.30 am it is too crowded with tourists and beachgoers to film. It is an early morning gig for anyone in my profession or a winter job.
When we arrived at the ocean entrance at around 8.10 am, I had the famous Sports Illustrated swimsuit model – Brooks Nader – in our boat as we were transferring her by sea between sets (that is the only way on the Amalfi Coast). As our two boats united in the narrow fjord entrance, I could see Vito’s excitement at my company and meanwhile Brooks is far from shy. Spontaneously, we transferred her into his boat and both boats fought with currents and waves for the right angle for the camera. It was not easy for anyone, least of all Brooks with that lobster.
For a glimpse of a second, it came together, and we had our playful parody. When the cameras were laid down and calm was restored, I asked Vito – “What can we tell people? Who is the woman in your boat? What is the story?”
“It’s my wife, of course”, he replied with the deadpan face of an Amalfi fisherman who has seen most things in his 80 years.”” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 57” x 56” in (144.8 cm x 142.2 cm)
- Framed Image: 72” x 71” in (182.9 cm x 180.3 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 38” x 37” in (96.52 cm x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Image: 53” x 52” in (134.6 cm x 132.1 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.
The Amalfi Coast
Atrani, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone”. – John Steinbeck, 1953.
Steinbeck nailed it, but on his travels, he often did, and his observations are timeless. What was true in 1953 remains true 70 years later. The Amalfi Coast is the great creator’s aesthetic masterclass and, in this most spiritual of places, there can be no accommodation for those failing to give thanks for their brief tenancy. We are blessed to be here and this coveted corner of Italy reinforces the compass that always points to the celebration of life.
I wanted to take a picture not only to evoke a sense of joy but one rich in Italian narrative. There needed to be some visual chaos but at the centre of it I wanted to convey an easy admiration for the best things in life. There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying the beautiful things: whether it be cuisine; fashion or people and Italians seem to be more comfortable with this default position than most.
I chose Atrani for this photograph partly because it is timeless and partly because the stairs off the main square lead the eye and the windows frame the subject. It is a wonderful canvas from which to work and it is no surprise that big Hollywood projects such as Ripley and The Equaliser 3 have recently been filmed in this small gem of a town.
Brooks Nader is a star and I often work with her. She is not only striking, but she emotionally engages in every role I ask her to play. She is also great fun to be with. This was not her hardest role, she just had to be herself.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 64” in (142.2 cm x 162.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 79” in (180.3 cm x 200.7 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 42” in (93.98 cm x 106.7 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 57” in (132.1 cm x 144.8 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.