Where's My Lunch? Last Orders II
Montana, USA – 2018
“The Jersey Lilly is the most authentic and isolated “Final Frontier” saloon bar I know in America. Based in the town of Ingomar, Montana (population 12), it is a long way from anywhere. In fact, there is no store or fuel within a 45-minute drive north, south, east or west. It truly is the “last chance saloon”.
My fixer in Montana spoke to the owner – a cowboy rather splendidly called “Boots” – and he agreed that we could use the interior and exterior for filming on a Monday and Tuesday in the early summer – when the bar itself would normally be closed. Permits were also secured with the local authorities to allow us to film in the bar with a tamed bear.
I did a reconnaissance the previous Saturday – a good three hour round trip from Billings, Montana – to check the light and the bar’s interior. It was clear that there was potential to tell a “wild west” story, but equally I would have very little depth of field in any photograph I took – the window light was okay, but not overly generous. I was drawn to the number of animal heads on the wall and in particular the massive bison in the top corner seemed a great prop to play with, albeit I needed a composition to show it off.
Roxana Redfoot from Dallas, Texas is a star – she is smart, as well as striking and can play any character role. On this occasion, her role was within her comfort zone – a sassy and smokingly sexy saloon bar maid with a no-nonsense approach to over eager customers. The customer, Adam – a 1000 lb brown bear – is not normally aggressive but working with him is far from easy – as he does not speak English. Roxanna showed no anxiety and was theatrical and focused from start to finish. Her eyes had to tell a story.
For my part, I had a preconception and an image in my head. It was vital to me that both the bear’s head and Roxy’s head had to be equidistant from my camera lens – which probably meant that they had to be looking at each other. I knew that we would have a limited window of opportunity as Adam was not going to play the role for long – he gets bored easily. Luckily the rabbit behind the bar kept him focused for longer than I expected.
The vast majority of shots did not work for one reason or another – my focus, the bear’s head position or the interaction between the two characters. But this one image is a gem. The American Wild West – you cannot beat it as a canvas on which to paint a playful vignette.“
-David Yarrow
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.
Who Let the Dogs Out
Los Angeles, California – 2023
“This photograph is a small love letter to the city of Los Angeles. For all its vapidity, superficialness and elaborate coffee orders, there is no denying its pre-eminence in the entertainment world. It is a place where creatives go to be challenged, humbled and occasionally propelled forward. As the comedian Steve Martin once said “the key is to be so good they can’t ignore you”.
Sunset Boulevard is the spiritual heart of West Hollywood and that makes it one of the most famous stretches of road in the world. There are not many places where a road itself is a tourist attraction, but Sunset is exactly that. It is not just a perfunctory means of getting from A to B, it is a visual feast from the ground level tarmac to the Californian sky above. The enormous billboards that lean down from above create a two-sided amphitheatre that informs drivers of all that is present.
I have long found a visceral connection with Sunset Boulevard. I would go as far as to say it might be my favourite stretch of road in the world. It is possibly a subconscious prompt to get better at what I do and never to accept the average. Hollywood destroys the mundane and the callow and that is no bad thing.
This is a dog-eat-dog world and they certainly love their dogs in LA. There are more pet shops these days in the city than newsagents. One day, just before we were closing a section of Sunset Boulevard for a Sunday morning shoot, we were having lunch in Il Pastaio – my family’s favourite Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills – and our concentration on the menus was broken by the sight of three Pomeranian dogs arriving in their own scaled down Lamborghini. The only passengers were the dogs and it was being driven remotely down the street by their owner who was out of sight. Only in LA – we all thought – and I knew what needed to be done. It was time to rip up our plans for the Sunday and adapt.
I want to thank the dogs – Rocky, Apollo and Napoleon – for being so easy and gentle to work with. But most of all, I want to thank their owner Anne Frankel who is rightly so proud of her boys. She bought two of these dogs on the passing of her husband and I see the love they have for her and vice versa. They are adored by all who meet them.
Only in LA, but it’s a beautiful world.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 77" in (142 cm x 196 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 92” in (180 cm x 234 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 51” in (94 cm x 130 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 66” in (132 cm x 168 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.
Winter Wonderland
Telluride, Colorado – 2023
“Just occasionally it all comes together and this particular morning in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, we had our moment. Everything did indeed come together and I will hold this photograph close to my heart. It is a strong compositional balance and the light allows it to transcend.
This all came down to the team working very quickly from 4 am: the stylists; hair and make-up and, of course, the plane crew. I knew that as soon as the sun rose the ethereal nature of the light would be lost and our window of opportunity would be gone. The sun could hit the top of the mountains but no more.
The glorious DC3 plane, which participated in D Day, had been flown in 48 hours earlier to avoid the snowstorm which had cleared by about 4 am of the day of the shoot and my plan was for that to form the middle ground, with the grandeur of the mountain behind.
There were challenges: it was extremely cold and we also needed to work with red tape because Telluride airport is commercial and the runway crew were righty prioritising snow clearing before accommodating a film crew. Everything had been agreed long in advance, but the snowstorm threw a curve ball in front of us.
My team did everything they could to encourage the airport manager to let us onto the runway as soon as possible and charm and appreciation ultimately prevailed with time running up.
This was one of the first images I took that morning and every minute after that the light became less kind. It was taken just after 7 am.
Josie Canseco looks fabulous and full of winter mischief. She is a total professional as it was minus 20 degrees and she manages to maintain a sovereignty and a sexuality that can be difficult to evoke under those conditions.
I asked the pilot to keep the propellors on to add a dynamism and sense that Josie was merely being dropped off. Good call, I think.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 81" in (142 cm x 106 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 96” in (180 cm x 244 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 53” in (94 cm x 135 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 68” in (132 cm x 173 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 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Monument Valley, Utah – 2023
“This is not the first time we have asked former basketball player- Erica Lawrence – to travel to a far-off location so that we could fuse her magnificence with an equally spectacular car. First it was the San Bernardino Pass between Italy and Switzerland with a James Bond car and this time it was the heart of John Ford’s American West with a $60m Testarossa Ferrari. The car, driven by Sports Illustrated cover girl Brooks Nader, looks stunning against the iconic grandeur of Monument Valley and Erica’s body starts and finishes the story.
We enjoy rolling the dice a little and embracing parody: it doesn’t pay to be too earnest in storytelling. Stories are just that – stories. Taschen’s book Wheels and Curves showcased photographs from the roaring twenties that played on the alchemy between female form and the early motor car. For many it brought two of the finer things in life together and this was to be celebrated.
It is quite instructive that in the 1920s photographing this quite specific subject matter was seen as being a most laudable use of the camera. It was a category within the vast field of photographic subject matter. A photographer could turn his lens to landscapes, or war, or still life, but could equally photograph girls sitting erotically on cars.
Ostensibly, it would seem little has changed in the last 100 years.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 91" in (142 cm x 231 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 106” in (180 cm x 269 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 60” in (94 cm x 152 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 75” in (132 cm 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.
Testarossa
Monument Valley, Utah – 2023
“We have worked with some expensive props over the years and as our creative visions become more expansive and ambitious, there will no doubt be some surreal days ahead in the field.
However, it may be a long time before we can beat the thrill of taking a 1953 Testarossa to the most iconic stretch of the American Highway system – Forest Gump Point in Monument Valley.
There are so many people to thank for making the image I had in my head come to reality. Firstly we must thank the Navajo Nation and their elder Don Mose – who looked after us so well and entertained the crew to dinner. We were honoured to be their guests.
Brooks Nader is a great friend of the crew and always performs, irrespective of the cold or the long hours on the road. We like good energy and Brooks offers it at a level that is almost indecent.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 65" in (142 cm x 165 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 180” in (180 cm x 203 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 43” in (94 cm x 109 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 58” in (132 cm x 147 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.
Testarossa (Colour)
Monument Valley, Utah – 2023
“We have worked with some expensive props over the years and as our creative visions become more expansive and ambitious, there will no doubt be some surreal days ahead in the field.
However, it may be a long time before we can beat the thrill of taking a 1953 Testarossa to the most iconic stretch of the American Highway system – Forest Gump Point in Monument Valley.
There are so many people to thank for making the image I had in my head come to reality. Firstly we must thank the Navajo Nation and their elder Don Mose – who looked after us so well and entertained the crew to dinner. We were honoured to be their guests.
Brooks Nader is a great friend of the crew and always performs, irrespective of the cold or the long hours on the road. We like good energy and Brooks offers it at a level that is almost indecent.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 65" in (142 cm x 165 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 180” in (180 cm x 203 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 43” in (94 cm x 109 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 58” in (132 cm x 147 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.
Stratton Oakmont
West Palm Beach, Florida – 2025
“There was a time in Wall Street, and indeed the City of London, when the moral and ethical compass was not just temporarily misplaced, it was firmly lost. It was an era expertly captured in both Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. These two masterful storytellers happily fed on an implausibly good menu of vice, debauchery and excess. The astonishing reality is that these were not stories of fiction – they were – in large parts, factual.
I started work on an equity dealing floor in London in 1988, so I speak with a little authority when suggesting that not everything that went on at Stratton Oakmont was peculiar to that unhinged assembly of misfits. The 1980s were the Wild West and dealing rooms were the playgrounds of hard partying adrenalin junkies who believed that life was very much for living. It was a corporate Babylon.
Of course, serious business was going on, but so also was a great deal of monkey business. Those looking for a profession that rewarded frat house behaviour were attracted to the big investment banking dealing rooms. It was one big ride in the late 1980s and early 1990s and both men and women were complicit. Management unashamedly employed attractive and outgoing girls on their sales teams; it was seen as smart business practice.
In the new millennium, the subprime crisis and enlightened thought stopped the party and now we are left with mere memories of a time when greed was good, when “rookie numbers” were rookie numbers and expense accounts and compliance were seriously out of control. But I am not sure how much everyone remembers – it’s all a bit of a haze.
I would like to thank Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) for collaborating with me on this project.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 43” x 103" in (109 cm x 262 cm)
- Framed Image: 58” x 118” in (147 cm x 300 cm)
Standard - Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 32” x 77” in (81 cm x 196 cm)
- Framed Image: 47” x 92” in (119 cm x 234 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.
Stratton Oakmont (Colour)
West Palm Beach, Florida – 2025
“There was a time in Wall Street, and indeed the City of London, when the moral and ethical compass was not just temporarily misplaced, it was firmly lost. It was an era expertly captured in both Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. These two masterful storytellers happily fed on an implausibly good menu of vice, debauchery and excess. The astonishing reality is that these were not stories of fiction – they were – in large parts, factual.
I started work on an equity dealing floor in London in 1988, so I speak with a little authority when suggesting that not everything that went on at Stratton Oakmont was peculiar to that unhinged assembly of misfits. The 1980s were the Wild West and dealing rooms were the playgrounds of hard partying adrenalin junkies who believed that life was very much for living. It was a corporate Babylon.
Of course, serious business was going on, but so also was a great deal of monkey business. Those looking for a profession that rewarded frat house behaviour were attracted to the big investment banking dealing rooms. It was one big ride in the late 1980s and early 1990s and both men and women were complicit. Management unashamedly employed attractive and outgoing girls on their sales teams; it was seen as smart business practice.
In the new millennium, the subprime crisis and enlightened thought stopped the party and now we are left with mere memories of a time when greed was good, when “rookie numbers” were rookie numbers and expense accounts and compliance were seriously out of control. But I am not sure how much everyone remembers – it’s all a bit of a haze.
I would like to thank Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) for collaborating with me on this project.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 43” x 103" in (109 cm x 262 cm)
- Framed Image: 58” x 118” in (147 cm x 300 cm)
Standard - Edition of 20 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 32” x 77” in (81 cm x 196 cm)
- Framed Image: 47” x 92” in (119 cm x 234 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.
Worth Avenue
Palm Beach, Florida – 2025
“In my musings over how to pay homage to Palm Beach in one frame, I focused on the need to evoke a sense of leisure and a sense of place. Worth Avenue looking east ticked many boxes for me as the clock tower instantly locates the set and, if my composition was tight, the absence of modernity would allow me to tell a period story. If possible, I wanted to go back in time to add more to the narrative.
To write a love letter to this community without palm trees in the frame is sub optimal as they are integral to the vibe. It would be akin to paying homage to Aspen without any sense of snow or mountains. But dogs are almost as pivotal to the community as humans; to be dogless in Palm Beach seemingly risks social isolation.
The problem was closing the road down and, to the best of my knowledge, in recent years it’s been challenging to get the town council to agree to this. We have some friends on that committee, however, and agreement was reached so long as we finished filming before 8 am. This meant shooting directly into the rising sun and this limited our effective shoot time to about 20 minutes. When the sun rises above the clock tower it is simply too powerful to work into.
So, we had one shot at it and it was a true team effort. Nadine Leopold, the European supermodel, played her role perfectly as a carefree, dog loving, life loving resident of the community and luckily the poodle behaved at the right moment.
In my Palm Beach series, the starting premise was to be original in all that we did. There was simply no excuse for being hackneyed – that would be lame. The road shots had to be authentic and celebratory and according to the famous clock tower, I think we achieved that at about 7.40 am that morning.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 46” x 64" in (142 cm x 163 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 79” in (180 cm x 201 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 43” in (94 cm x 109 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 58” in (132 cm x 147 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.
Bearish III
Katmai, Alaska – 2021
“Bears are not an easy subject matter for me; in part because the backdrops are often a little messy, and in part the obvious safety issues. Fortunately, bears in Katmai, Alaska during the summer salmon runs are used to sharing rivers with fishermen and are largely comfortable with human presence.
The biggest issue for me, however, is that my default position is to try and glorify an animal and that tends to draw me towards the biggest versions of a species. With bears, that is being a little greedy, and in Katmai, one simply has to work with what is available.
Last week, however, this beautiful and sizeable sow caught our eye and one rainy morning she put on a little show for us out in the tundra. The light was marginal, but I just about got away with it. I was always looking for the head on shot and the rain added another layer of textural detail to what is a stunning bear.
This was the only photograph I took away from five long days in the field, but that’s fine with me. As with the fishermen up in Katmai; it is not the number of fish you catch, but the size of the biggest one.
I want to thank our excellent pilots Chad and Devon for looking after us so well in and out of Iliamna.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 97" in (142 cm x 246 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 112” in (180 cm x 284 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 64” in (94 cm x 163 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 79” in (132 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.