I’M AN OIL MAN
Marathon, Texas – 2023
Despite our acute awareness of the environmental harm of carbon omissions, there is something incongruously appealing about the early days of the oil industry. It is difficult to articulate the reason for the appeal, but perhaps it’s because we warm to pioneers and people who risk it all to follow their dream. Daniel Yergin’s 1992 Pulitzer winning book – The Prize – told the story of the petroleum industry from 1850 to 1990 and became so acclaimed that it was translated into 14 languages. In the 900-page classic there was enough insight to satisfy the scholar. But it was his narratives on the colourful personalities in the history of oil that captured the interest of the public. The further back in time, the more these protagonists played to the lore of early prospectors. The early days of oil were a treasure trove for storytellers.
Film makers such as Paul Anderson with There will be Blood and now Martin Scorsese with the highly anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon homed in on the nascent US oil production industry in the years before and after the First World War. Both films focus on the dangers of avarice and the merciless pursuit of wealth in thinly governed frontier towns.
Scorsese used my old Texas buddy – Ty Mitchell – as a most convincing bad guy in Killers of the Flower Moon and I knew I wanted him on this set – despite the fact his day rate has moved north now that he is known to work with Marty.
My plan was to use the base of the derrick in West Texas as a platform on which to play a parody of those early dirty days of wildcatting and I knew Ty would kill his look. He is as authentic as they get and we like authenticity. Meanwhile, I asked Texas local Roxanna Redfoot – who we regularly cast – if she minded getting soaked in oil, partly because I knew she would say “bring it on” . I needed the vignette to be elevated by the characters and not be just an action oil shot.
Sometimes a creative idea just comes together and works better than ever imagined. This is very much one and huge credit goes to those four Texans for what they went through for a photograph. It certainly has the wow factor.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 86” in (93.98 x 218.4 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 101” in (180.3 cm x 256.5 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 57” in (93.98 x 144.8 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 72” in (132.1 cm x 182.9 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.
TEXAS
Marathon, Texas – 2023
There are no landmarks in this image, no famous references and no famous people. Instead, there are just a couple of prompts and those prompts all emphatically shout Texas. That was my goal; to stage a playful vignette that incorporated a strong sense of place without going over the top. This would be a hard challenge in most US States, but in Texas there are cards to play with.
The set in West Texas was designed with meticulous care and I thank all involved. It was the perfect canvas to tell stories and, true to the era it portrays, the nearest community of note was 45 minutes away. The sense of remoteness was most genuine.
We have traveled across this vast state with a frequency that suggests we have developed a deep affection and that would be true. John Steinbeck got there first and summed it up far better than I could ever do.
“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings,
Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.” John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 78” in (93.98 x 198.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 93” in (180.3 cm x 236.2 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 51” in (93.98 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.
THERE WILL BE OIL
Marathon, Texas – 2023
West Texas is the hub of the American Petroleum industry – so much so that West Texas Intermediate ( WTI) is a benchmark crude oil futures contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).
Oil was first discovered in West Texas at the turn of the 19th century and the reserves in the Permian basin are so big that the region still produces 4m barrels a day – a third of US oil production.
With oil came a story book of characters. My sense was that drilling sites in West Texas in 1915 were loosely governed and uncompromising places, where avarice and sin lurked around most corners. Wildcatting in the wild west came with little cultural refinement and probably a cavalier abuse of unchecked power.
To incorporate all this in one vignette required using the space on our set efficiently. There were many thoughts in my mind that morning near Marathon, Texas, but the overarching one was to offer a sense of place. It is not such a challenge in West Texas, which is why so many acclaimed movies, such as Paul Anderson’s Oscar winning There will be Blood, were shot in the area. We return here regularly to tell stories and each time our ambitions have broadened. It is a place that has traditionally not rewarded modesty.
As a photographer, I try and resist the urge to both “show and tell”. I prefer to just “show” and then it is up to the audience to interpret.
I am not sure of the relationship between the woman and the oil man, or indeed any of the drillers, or what she was doing in town. But at this very moment in time, the crew had more important matters to deal with and whatever her game, it was going to have to wait.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 79” in (93.98 x 200.7 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 94” in (180.3 cm x 238.8 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 52” in (93.98 x 132.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 67” in (132.1 cm x 170.2 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.
Black Gold
Marathon, Texas – 2023
It may seem totally incongruous in 2023, but horses and oil derricks were necessary bedfellows in the nascent days of the US oil industry.
This was true everywhere, but presumably in cowboy states, it was the most natural of combinations. Long after the invention of the motor vehicle, horses would be a mainstream feature of drilling locations in West Texas.
My goal was to tell a story around this unlikely combination and my instincts were for it to be simmering with energy. Like so many, I found Paul Anderson’s There will be Blood totally mesmerizing and no more so than the moment they struck oil.
The narrative was one of chaos and people running in many directions and that was what I wanted to borrow from.
We had built our set not far from where There will be Blood was filmed in West Texas. There were many reasons for doing this, no more so than our friendship with many local cowboys who we have worked with over the years. There is also a “can do” attitude towards getting things done which we really admire. The horsemanship in this part of the world is also without equal and my lead here – Ryan Marshall – is as good as they get.
My preference is always to shoot against the light as it adds drama to features that are defying gravity, which in this case was both oil and dust. I haven’t seen this story being told before, which always gives me a little thrill. Like Texans, we think big too.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 65” x 56” in (109.2 x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Image: 80” x 71” in (203.2 cm x 180.3 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 43” x 37” in (109.2 x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Image:58” x 52” in (147.3 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.
Don’t Worry Darling
DON’T WORRY DARLING
Palm Springs, California – 2023
“The desert resort of Palm Springs – nestling in the Coachella Valley of California – is not just a town, it is seen by some as a metaphor for how to live life. Its mere name evokes imagery of “desert modern” architecture, Slim Aarons pool parties, retro styling and endless vapid leisure. Hollywood found a sister location in this resort and was drawn to its shared values of celebrity, health, new wealth, and sex.
Palm Springs is the antithesis of the industrial “rust belt” of America and became a haven for those wanting to escape from their past or to enjoy a better life because of their past. It is no surprise perhaps that much of the Chicago mob money from the 1970s found its way down to Palm Springs.
My idea was to take a single frame encapsulating this hot and colourful utopia. But there was no room to be earnest, I simply wanted to be long of parody, colour and symbolism. Too much wealth, leisure time and shopping can bring vacuous traits.
Like film makers before me, I homed in on 1950s styling as I sensed that this was the era that defined the
post war growth of the resort. I had the Ferrari and the police cars and from the first day of scouting in Palm Springs, we knew our street location and we knew our timing of roughly one hour after sunrise.
Our lead was the celebrated Alessandra Ambrosia – the super smart Brazilian model who can play any role ascribed to her. She “killed it” that morning and makes the image. Who knows who is being arrested in the background, but it doesn’t look like it’s particularly interfering with her morning.
This photograph is deliberately saturated in colour to evoke the gauzy, saccharine pleasures of the town. Is it really paradise or is it a parody of itself?”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Framed: 56” x 84” in (142.2 cm x 213.4 cm)
- Framed: 71” x 99” in (180.3 cm x 251.5 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 60” x 56” in (152.4 cm x 142.2 cm)
- Framed Size: 75” x 71" in (190.5 cm x 180.3 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 12 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 40” x 37” in (101.6 cm x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Size: 55” x 52" in (139.7 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.
Sin City
Sin City
Joshua Tree, California – 2023
“Joshua Tree National Park, to the south east of Los Angeles, offers a unique visual canvas on which to tell stories. The rock formations and the trees make it a most distinctive playground for the filmmaker. An added bonus is that whilst the main roads through the park boast modern tarmac surfaces, there are some wonderfully timeless single lane dust tracks cutting through the scorched terrain.
In our early morning scouting trips to Joshua Tree, these dust roads were the focus of our attention, because a road often offers the lead component around which to build a story. I found a spot that, when looking west in the early morning light, offered so much, including the disconnect of snow on the distant mountain.
However, we were thrown a curve ball by the light. As many who have travelled to Joshua Tree will testify, the visuals are at their best within an hour of sunrise and an hour of sunset. This meant a 3.30 am start for Cindy Crawford and her team in order for her to be on set by 6 am and she is known for her punctuality.
My narrative was simply that a girl returning from Vegas, has either run out of money, run out of fuel, or both, but despite this misfortune, she cuts a figure of lackadaisical, carefree sexuality. It may, of course, have been those attributes that drew her to Sin City in the first place, but that is for the viewer to interpret. I can only show, not tell.
I like to shoot with an historic period in mind rather than in the modern day as it adds another layer to a still photograph. The abandoned Ford pick-up truck certainly takes us back in time and the Willie Nelson T-Shirt homes in on an 80s vibe.
Cindy Crawford is a remarkable woman and we both love this photograph.”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Framed: 56” x 84” in (142.2 cm x 213.4 cm)
- Framed: 71” x 99” in (180.3 cm x 251.5 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 37” x 56” in (93.98 cm x 142.2 cm)
- Framed Size: 52” x 71" in (132.1 cm x 180.3 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 37” x 45” in (93.98 cm x 114.3 cm)
- Framed Size: 52” x 60" in (132.1 cm x 152.4 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.
Roy's
Amboy, California – 2023
“This photograph of Cindy Crawford, walking on Route 66 in front of a landmark 1950s motel, smells of Americana and that, of course, was my intent. We were not able to close the road down and had to wing it slightly at the end of the day, but “stolen” images are often the best.
There are many constituent parts to this image and I am, as usual, reminded again, just how good our respective teams are when working under pressure. Not only is it 100 degrees outside; we are on a main road deep in the Californian desert and there are tourists swarming the area around Roy’s not quite believing their luck at seeing Cindy and yet we managed to pull this off. Just a fraction of a second, but that is all it takes.
It was a 20-hour day that day, but one of the best we have had together and a huge amount of the credit
goes to our production teams. It’s the small things like Cindy’s hair that make such a difference to this photograph and the forecourt of Roy’s is no studio, it’s a working gas station. I raise my glass to Cindy’s hair stylist – the legend that is Peter Savic. I know working in an arid and sometimes windy desert is not his preferred environment, but he is a total professional.
The perspective offered by a standard lens is pleasing to the human eye as that is what we are used to day in day out; the camera lens sees what we see. But there are challenges in this frame as I needed to include both her feet and the Roy’s sign and yet I could not afford for her face to be too far from the camera. Only a few angles were going to work and then we also had the props behind.
But she knows exactly what she is doing and how to help me with my job. That’s why she is who she is.”
Available sizes
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 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 20 + 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.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Amboy, California – 2023
“I think visiting a potential film location for the first time is akin to a first date or a first experience at an acclaimed restaurant. It is all so unfamiliar and there is no guide as to where to start. The sensory overload can be intimidating and it takes time to distill and be oneself. Most second dates are better than the first and those who like a restaurant on their first visit will tend to enjoy it even more on the second and so it goes on. If this wasn’t the case, the brain is not the organ we give it credit for being. We are all incremental learners and we enjoy and leverage familiarity.
The first time I visited this railway track in the hot Californian desert, I knew it had visual potential, especially if I shot late in the afternoon and directly against the light, but I needed a month or so to let the cocktail of what I could do marinate in my own mind.
My predilection is to avoid the static or the mundane and planes, trains and cars in a still can look frozen. A plane defies gravity so that helps in a single image, but I knew the car and the train could not join it. I don’t envy Formula 1 photographers; it’s such a difficult sport to take stills of. My visual leaning was to have a sense of movement elsewhere and that’s where the idea of dust being kicked up from railway workers offered a solution. The light would be my partner.
Once the premise is there, it is about scalpel sharp precision in the detail. Let’s not have any car – let’s have a vintage 1953 Ferrari and let’s not have any girl holding the image together, let’s have Cindy Crawford – perhaps America’s most loved and celebrated model.
The styling in this shot was excellent and I thank Nicole Allowitz for being so good at her craft. This photograph is as much a testament to her as it is to me. The railway workers are so on point, as, of course, is Cindy. She is a given.
It is possible that some of my work over the last 10 years – particularly with wildlife – has been imitated and filmmakers have every right to do so. I celebrate a good picture like everyone else and there are some very able cameramen out there. But I don’t think this photograph is going to be imitated in a hurry and this gives me a little smile.”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Framed: 56” x 69” in (142.2 cm x 175.3 cm)
- Framed: 71” x 84” in (180.3 cm x 213.4 cm)
LARGE - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 56” x 68” in (142.2 cm x 172.7 cm)
- Framed Size: 71” x 83" in (180.3 cm x 210.8 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 37” x 45” in (93.98 cm x 114.3 cm)
- Framed Size: 52” x 60" in (132.1 cm x 152.4 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.
South By Southwest (2023)
South By Southwest
Amboy, California – 2023
“Hitchcock’s acclaimed 1959 espionage thriller – North by Northwest – has long being a prompt for me; especially the sequence in which the fleeing Cary Grant is chased down by the crop spraying plane. It was cinema ahead of its time and I admit to watching that sequence more times than would be considered normal.
During COVID, we played on this storyline near my home in Devon, but in 2023 I drew up a more ambitious story that would be played out in the isolated desert community of Amboy, California. We had scouted the area intensely and knew our angles, our light and most of all the landowners.
The premise was to style the set as if we were indeed in the late 1950s and we recognised that we had a strong backdrop, as Roy’s Cafe is one of the treasure trove authentic landmarks of Route 66. From Roy’s looking east, the Mother Road stretches straight to the horizon in a way that plays to our preconceptions of Americana road trips. We then brought in a 1953 Ferrari 250 MM Vignale Spyder as the lead car and dressed the background with a Ford pick-up from the late 1940s.
But this was mere window dressing and my sense was that in order to transcend, this story required some heavyweight components. Flatteringly, Cindy Crawford agreed to be the main protagonist and I knew she would give Cary Grant a run for his money. Cindy is the best of the best and it is always a huge honour to work with her. Ascribe her a role and a look and she will nail it every time.
But we also needed a plane. Amboy has a tiny runway strip and towards the end of the day, when the traffic
is lighter, a good pilot can flirt with the tarmac of Route 66. I needed a pilot whom I could trust and I found him in Greg Caldwell, who slightly reminded me of the heroic crop spraying pilot from the movie Independence Day. We had worked with him before and there didn’t seem much to trouble Greg – not even his plane’s aerial proximity to a $10m Ferrari or, more importantly, one of the world’s most identifiable and revered women.
There is a film noir feel to the image and I think the relatively flat light helps the rather menacing mood. But the credit lies with both Greg and Cindy who did exactly what I asked them to do .
I guess we may have broken some new ground here as well as a few rules. The BTS video of this shot is worth seeing, it’s one of our better ones.”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE - Edition of 20:
- Framed: 56” x 69” in (142.2 cm x 175.3 cm)
- Framed: 71” x 84” in (180.3 cm x 213.4 cm)
LARGE - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 56” x 81” in (142.2 cm x 205.7 cm)
- Framed Size: 71” x 96" in (180.3 cm x 243.8 cm)
STANDARD - Edition of 20 + 3 AP:
- Image Size: 37” x 54” in (93.98 cm x 137.1 cm)
- Framed Size: 52” x 69" in (132.1 cm x 175.3 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.
Village People
Manhattan, New York – 2023
Half of the proceeds will go to John McEnroe’s philanthropic endeavors.
“McSorley’s Old Ale House in the East Village is one of the most celebrated Irish bars on the Eastern Seaboard of America. Founded in 1854, it seemingly hasn’t changed much in 170 years and if the walls could talk, it would – “to be sure” – be one very long monologue.
The interior is a museum of the Irish in Manhattan and the joint has such a discernible vibe that Martin Scorsese and his crew did their press briefings for The Gangs of New York in the front bar. In the Great War, young soldiers heading to Europe in 1917, left a turkey wish bone on a wire above the bar; the bones of those who never returned still hang there in front of various JFK memorabilia.
The pub has been in the same Irish family hands for three generations and I was honoured to discover that the current custodian – Gregory – was a collector of my work. Naively, we tried to visit him on St Patrick’s Day, but couldn’t get within 200 yards of the pub. The next day, we had more luck and I was charmed not just by Gregory, but by the whole vibe of the joint. It is a truly special place and I knew I had to film there.
I didn’t have long to wait for the opportunity as John McEnroe – one of the most loved and talented of all American sporting legends and a truly uncompromising New Yorker – had agreed to be filmed by me in the city. Although the McEnroes are of Irish origin and therefore McSorley’s seemed like an appropriate destination, the reason that the location made sense went far deeper than that; John personifies the gritty, uncompromising New Yorker who fights for what he believes to be right – he always has. My leaning was the sawdust laden floors of McSorley’s offered a far more appropriate platform to film this blunt, quintessential, street fighter than some smart Upper East side Italian restaurant or cocktail bar. We were going Irish and tough.
McEnroe’s most famous rebuke to an umpire was the “you cannot be serious” line and I thought those words somewhere in McSorley’s – no matter how incongruous they would be to the rest of the décor – would complement John well. I asked him to bring his Gibson guitar and not a tennis racket, as music now defines him as much tennis and besides, we did give a nod to his rival Bjorn Borg in the photograph.
We were on a creative roll now and I sensed we could add further to the visual overload. The band Village People seemed like a good additive, after-all, we were in the Village and they were of the McEnroe Borg era. Then, since we were playing to a sense of community, I thought we may as well throw in a lady of the night. Luckily Vivian from Pretty Woman was on hand to help.
It is a bar full of Village People, which is what McSorley’s presumably was in 1854. McEnroe looks pure Rock and Roll bad ass. To anyone that says, I would not want to be in that bar, I would simply reply “You cannot be serious.”
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 90” in (142.2 cm x 228.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 105" in (180.3 cm x 266.7 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 59” in (93.98 cm x 149.9 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 74” in (132.1 cm x 188 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.