Hook 'em Horns (B&W)
Austin, Texas – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“The University of Texas (UT) is integral to the lore and image of Texas and is beloved by its alumni. If Texas was a country, it would now rank 8th in world GDP and if UT was just an athletics institution, it would also rank high in the global performance charts. This is not a normal educational establishment.
The flagship of the athletics department is, of course, the Texas Longhorns, whose fan base stretches way beyond the alumni. To be in Austin for a Saturday game day is a bucket list sporting occasion, attracting crowds of over 80,000 people, even if the result is a foregone conclusion long before the tailgating parties start.
My plan was to take a tableau photograph celebrating this venerable institution, but there was much to plan to ensure my effort as an outsider would not end up being generic or hackneyed. I needed to push a few boundaries in my creative processing.
Since 1916 a longhorn steer named Bevo has represented The University of Texas as its famed mascot. There have, of course, been a few Bevos over the years, with their orange and white colouring emblematic of the institution. There is no more revered live mascot in global sport and I recognised that without Bevo, any picture celebrating the Longhorns would be very lame.
I want to thank Ben Barnes – the former Lieutenant Governor of Texas – for helping facilitate this shoot. My idea was to photograph Bevo in front of the UT tower which is the storied epicentre of the campus and Ben, who bizarrely knew my late father in the UK, made the necessary calls.
The grass lawn between 21st Street and the Tower suited the steer, but my leaning was always to add both dynamism and symbolism by using the same smoke effects that accompany Bevo when he triumphantly enters the Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium on game day. Smoke adds drama and focuses the eye. No wonder it is so often used in the creative entertainment industry.
I want to thank Ricky Brown Ricky Breenes, and Craig Westemeier of The University of Texas Athletics, William Reid and, of course, Governor Barnes. It was a privilege and an honour to be allowed this level of access.
This was an agreed partnership with UT, who will benefit from any sales of the commemorative photograph.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 77” in (142.2 cm x 195.98 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 92” in (180.3 cm x 233.68 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 51” in (93.98 cm x 129.54 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 66” in (132.1 cm x 167.64 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.
Jurassic Park
Durban, South Africa – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“There is something so downright terrifying about an adult crocodile that the poorer the light, the greater the sense of horror and threat. It is the most primeval of all animals and the bigger it comes, the more it elicits a sense of dropping into a Spielberg movie.
This photograph of a four-meter-long male crocodile is elevated by the lighting conditions at dusk. Three hours before, it was all too bright and any photographs would be less dramatic. He is believed to be over 110 years old and weighs more than 750 kgs.
I am not good with crocs and I do tend to suffer from camera shake more than when filming any other animal. I have a steady hand, but not so much in encounters such as this. The other problem I have, is that when the camera is head on to a subject, there is always a decision to be taken as to whether to focus on the mouth or the eyes. It’s a dilemma for me because my default position is to have the eyes in focus and make sure that the nearest feature to the camera is not so out of the focal plane as to create a tension point. In most cases, however, that is not an issue and the face is all in focus.
But with an adult crocodile, the filmmaker must make a choice, as the distance from the nose and teeth to the eyes is material. I don’t think there is a choice; the focus should be on the nose and this photograph offers some big clues as to why.
I could not have taken this image 20 years ago. Cameras and lenses work so much better in low light than they used to and I was pushing my camera to the edge of its capability. I was also pushing myself to the edge of mine.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 74” in (142.2 cm x 187.96 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 89” in (180.3 cm x 226.06 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 49” in (93.98 cm x 124.46 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 64” in (132.1 cm x 162.56 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.
Capri (Colour)
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“La Fontelina is the most celebrated beach club on the most fabled holiday island in the world. On that basis, it must be a special place and indeed it is. Nestling in the rocks and sea pools in front of the Faraglioni sea stacks, it casts an immediate visual spell on any visitor. If the protagonists in Game of Thrones had a favoured place to eat, it would be located here.
I had not been to La Fontelina before 2024 because I had never been to Capri, but on my first visual exposure to the venue, I recognised that it was aesthetically without equal.
Doing a photo shoot here requires many skills in addition to those employed when operating a camera. Most crucially, I needed to win the support of the owners Gaetano and Mario Gargiulo. Their generational success story meant that they needed neither a cash backhander nor some lame pictures for their Instagram account. Every day throughout the European summer they run and own one of the hottest tickets and they rightly focus on the constancy of excellence in their service rather than catering to film makers.
I met Gaetona first as a customer and then it became my sole purpose in life to win him over and let me shoot a DY typical tableaux at his most beautiful club. Capri is to Neapolitans what the Hamptons is to New Yorkers and I hoped I had one trick – my image of Diego Maradona from Mexico 1986 – up my sleeve. Maradona is adored in Naples for bringing the local club the league title in 1987 and I figured that a gift or two of my well-known image could help my cause. I was right – and yet again I owe Diego.
And so it was, early one morning this summer, I assembled a cast in La Fontelina. I knew the deck chair formations and the movement of the sun long before that day, as this was not a shoot to make mistakes on. I had sensed some empty space in front of the southerly stack and worked with local fisherman to sort that out, but I was also conscious of the need to fully showcase the famous parasols without blocking any of the leads. The scene was choreographed for those with familiarity and I was conscious of the need to elicit rich memories.
In my mind a photographic tableaux is all about the space between the people and the props and La Fontelina certainly gives you every chance. I like this photograph a great deal, but I care more that Gaetona and Mario want to hang it on their rustic wall at La Fontelina in time for next season. That is really all the matters to me, as it may mean I have a chance of getting a table.
What a place it is”- David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 49” x 103” in (124.5 cm x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 64” x 118” in (162.6 cm x 299.7 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 78” in (93.98 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 93” in (132.1 cm x 236.2 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.
Capri
Capri, Italy – 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“La Fontelina is the most celebrated beach club on the most fabled holiday island in the world. On that basis, it must be a special place and indeed it is. Nestling in the rocks and sea pools in front of the Faraglioni sea stacks, it casts an immediate visual spell on any visitor. If the protagonists in Game of Thrones had a favoured place to eat, it would be located here.
I had not been to La Fontelina before 2024 because I had never been to Capri, but on my first visual exposure to the venue, I recognised that it was aesthetically without equal.
Doing a photo shoot here requires many skills in addition to those employed when operating a camera. Most crucially, I needed to win the support of the owners Gaetano and Mario Gargiulo. Their generational success story meant that they needed neither a cash backhander nor some lame pictures for their Instagram account. Every day throughout the European summer they run and own one of the hottest tickets and they rightly focus on the constancy of excellence in their service rather than catering to film makers.
I met Gaetona first as a customer and then it became my sole purpose in life to win him over and let me shoot a DY typical tableaux at his most beautiful club. Capri is to Neapolitans what the Hamptons is to New Yorkers and I hoped I had one trick – my image of Diego Maradona from Mexico 1986 – up my sleeve. Maradona is adored in Naples for bringing the local club the league title in 1987 and I figured that a gift or two of my well-known image could help my cause. I was right – and yet again I owe Diego.
And so it was, early one morning this summer, I assembled a cast in La Fontelina. I knew the deck chair formations and the movement of the sun long before that day, as this was not a shoot to make mistakes on. I had sensed some empty space in front of the southerly stack and worked with local fisherman to sort that out, but I was also conscious of the need to fully showcase the famous parasols without blocking any of the leads. The scene was choreographed for those with familiarity and I was conscious of the need to elicit rich memories.
In my mind a photographic tableaux is all about the space between the people and the props and La Fontelina certainly gives you every chance. I like this photograph a great deal, but I care more that Gaetona and Mario want to hang it on their rustic wall at La Fontelina in time for next season. That is really all the matters to me, as it may mean I have a chance of getting a table.
What a place it is”- David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 49” x 103” in (124.5 cm x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Image: 64” x 118” in (162.6 cm x 299.7 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 78” in (93.98 cm x 180.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 93” in (132.1 cm x 236.2 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 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.