Come Fly With Me
Telluride, Colorado – 2023
“The most jaw dropping airports in the world also tend to host challenging runways, a bittersweet experience for both passengers and pilots. St Barts in the French Caribbean would be one example and then in the San Juan mountains of America, Telluride Airport proudly sits 9000 feet up in the sky. It must be one of the more outrageous places in which to build a commercial airport.
My idea was to build a story around this airport and the setting demanded some strong props, especially – of course – a plane.
We found access to a real beauty. Originally built for the US Army Air Corps as a C-47-DL and served in the US military during World War II in North Africa and in the eighth Air Force. It then went on to participate in the D-Day invasion. In 1946 her job was done and she was converted to what she is today – a Douglas, DC-3Ce.
The problem was always going to be getting the plane into Telluride and we needed a break in the winter weather. That break came 40 hours before the shoot schedule and we grabbed it. To be candid, I didn’t care about the difficulties of it leaving afterwards; that was someone else’s problem. We just had to make full use of its visual splendour during its short mini break at 9000ft.
I would not be the first to use the metallic splendour of aviation as a prop and then throw in the top models of the era. It’s a combination that worked so well for Norman Parkinson in Nairobi in 1951. The difficulty was making sure I glorified all three parts of the image: the girls, the plan and the unmistakable backdrop of Telluride. It was a challenging concept to execute, especially with temperatures at 20 degrees below zero.
My full respect to the girls: Josie Canseco, Daniela Braga, Brooks Nader and Erica Lawrence and, of course, my pilot Brandon Jewett.“
-David Yarrow
Available Sizes
Large - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 33” x 103" in (84 cm x 262 cm)
- Framed Image: 48” x 118” in (122 cm x 300 cm)
Standard - Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 25” x 77” in (64 cm x 196 cm)
- Framed Image: 40” x 92” in (102 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.
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.
Bison DeChambeau (Colour)
Bison DeChambeau
Archival Pigment Print
“There are about 16,000 golf courses in America, but only two are higher in elevation than Telluride Golf Club. When the members play out their rounds against the visual grandeur of the San Juan mountains, the thin air allows them to enjoy an extra 10 % length on their drives.
120 years ago, these mountains were thinly governed and hosted hard living, gun carrying, outlaws, not golf tournaments. When Tarantino shot The Hateful Eight, just a couple of miles
up the road, there were no clean-cut characters who looked like Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus.
There was little cultural refinement in the San Juan Mountains in the wild west days and the emergence of the genteel game of golf seems a little incongruous – especially at 9,500 feet. Until the club was founded in 1985, there were many more bears and bison in the mountains than there were birdies.
With all this in mind, I sensed there was an opportunity to be playful and stage a Wild West golf match on the course. The
locals could participate as extras, so long as they dressed in final frontier clothing, and then we just needed a proper ruffian
as the lead. I chose my friend Ty Mitchell, an authentic cowboy and DiCaprio’s henchman in Killers of the Flower Moon.
But we were not quite finished with the cast. We knew a tame bison out of Santa Fe and his owner was fairly convinced that he would be comfortable carrying the outlaw’s golf clubs. That seemed an idea worth exploring.
Early one mid-summer morning, it all came together on the 18th green at Telluride. The view back to the celebrated mountain airport in the distance emphatically identifies the location.
Today’s professional golf circuit is enriched by a few cavalier gun slingers and none more so than Bryson DeChambeau. I had a rare moment of inspiration and the title of this photograph is perhaps as fun as the photo itself.”
-David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56″ x 92″ in (142.2 x 233.7 cm)
- Framed Image: 71″ x 107″ in (180.3 x 271.8 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37″ x 61″ in (94 x 154.9 cm)
- Framed Image: 52″ x 76″ in (132.1 x 193.1 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.
Telluride's Happy Gilmore (Colour)
2025
“The visually blessed mountain town of Telluride in Colorado has accommodated story book characters since its foundation as a mining town in the late 19th century. Nestling at 9,500 feet up in the San Juan mountains, I think the thin air impinges on the ability of anyone to be even remotely normal. We are a quarter of the way through the 21st century, but Telluride remains a frontier town at the end of the line.
Those that have found Telluride and chosen to make it their home, celebrate life, as well they should; there are very few places I know on the planet that offer such a good way of life. It is a resort full of happy extroverts who embrace the culture of Carpe diem.
Telluride Golf Club is the third highest in elevation in America (out of 16,000 courses) and almost every hole has an outrageous backdrop. I thought that the18th hole, with the cliff hugging airport in the distance, would be an ideal platform to tell a story of a Wild West community that knows how to enjoy life.
I have become increasingly drawn to participation art and greatly admire the work of French photographer JR. The quest for authenticity is core to art and participation art is almost always authentic. Involving many people in a staged image does lean on logistics a little, but the key is to emotionally invest in the community of whom you are asking so much.
It is about “winning the crowd” and I could not have done this without the support and advocacy of locals in town. I want to thank Gold Mountain Gallery and Telluride Ski & Golf Club for their enthusiasm for this project and then, of course, the 100 locals who turned up at 6.30 am in period clothing at 9,500 feet up a mountain.”
– David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Print Size: 49″ x 103″ in (124.46 x 261.6 cm)
- Framed Size: 64″ x 118″ in (162.6 x 300 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Print Size: 37″ x 78″ in (94 x 198.1 cm)
- Framed Size: 52″ x 93 in (132 x 326.2 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 Contemporary’s private art shuttle. Please inquire.
Untamed
Telluride, Colorado- 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“Established in 1885, the saloon at the New Sheridan in Telluride, Colorado plays to the lore of the loosely governed Wild West. A great deal has gone on in this building over the last 140 years and I sense that not much of it would have earned the participants an easy stairway to heaven. The irony is, that given the bar sits at an altitude of 9200 feet, the alleged climb would be considerably shorter than most. The saloon has the whiff of vice and is probably all the better for it. It was a place where only four generations ago, saloon girls and grizzly gold prospectors bettered each other’s lives night after night.
In 1889, just one building down from the New Sheridan saloon, Butch Cassidy staged his first bank robbery. He and three mates ran off with $31,000 from the San Miguel Valley Bank – a load of cash in those days. There were no lawmen in sight, it was very much The Wild West. In my giddy western revisionism, I always demand strong faces and this tableau is a narrow smorgasbord of Western archetypes. The calculus involved in the casting and then the composition of that cast in a single vignette is vital if we are to pay effective homage to famous saloons such as the New Sheridan. It is a good canvas on which to tell stories.
Attention to detail in placing cast members is the epicentre of what we do and I think we have learnt from our many mistakes over the years. Everyone in this photograph has earned their place at the table and what a good dinner table that would be. There would be little in the way of moral compass, but there would be a dogged determination and a pursuit of the American dream. There is much to applaud in those attributes.
This was my first time working with Kelsey Asbille – a key cast member in the iconic Yellowstone series and a delightful and down to earth actress. She brought great energy to the set as well as her South Carolina charm and many stories of the excellence of Taylor Sheridan’s direction. I was keen not to be seen as a regression and that was a tough order. Kelsey knows the camera well and the camera loves her. Her eyes were my single point of focus and I asked her to look untamed. She delivered that look for sure as, indeed, did everyone else.
I want to thank Ray Farnsworth – the proud owner of the New Sheridan Hotel and its famous saloon – for hosting our crew and looking after us all so well. Do stay there: the staff are delightful; the food is excellent and it is no longer untamed.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 98” in (210.8 cm x 248.9 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 113” in (248.9 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.
Last Christmas
Telluride, Colorado- 2024
Archival Pigment Print
“The main street in Telluride looking west towards the colossal mountain that will bully it forever, is one of America’s great visual overloads. That is why every year hundreds of thousands of tourists stand where I knelt to take a picture. Like the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, it is a ground zero for selfies and maybe the location deserves a little better. It should elicit not just our phone’s attention, but a deep respect for Americana and the Final Frontier. The fact that a 150 years ago a village was built up here at 9,000 feet in Box Canyon is a telling insight into the determination of the first settlers.
I have filmed on Main Street a few times, but never with a car and I sensed that there could be potential to tell a period story. In my creative processing I built in a few key components: a classic car; an empty and snow caked street with no signs of modernity and a model whose styling played to the era of the car. If that was not greedy enough, I needed my wolf – Klondike. I wanted parody as well as glamour.
Closing down that street is not easy and I am hugely appreciative of the Major of Telluride – Teddy Errico – and his staff for their support on 14th December 2024. Without the film permit, the road closure and the parking restrictions, there was no picture.
But the best photographs always come down to the last 1% and on this occasion the key 1% was just luck. The early morning temperature, on that one morning when we were permitted to close the street and bring in my cast, led by the beautiful Josie Canseco, turned out to be the coldest of the winter so far and that changed every visual dynamic. At dawn it was only about 10 °F and the extreme cold amplified the heavy exhaust fumes from the 1955 Austin Healey. This offered an opportunity to isolate the model from the backdrop and elevate the photograph. It was not something that I had considered in my planning, but I will most certainly take it.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 56” in (210.8 cm x 210.8 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 71” in (248.9 cm x 248.9 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37” x 37” in (93.98 cm x 93.98 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 52” in (132.1 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.
Telluride
Telluride, Colorado – 2023
Archival Pigment Print
“Norman Parkinson’s photographs of his soon to be wife at an airfield in Nairobi, Kenya in 1951 have stood the test of time and certainly form part of the history of fashion photography. He was one of the original storytellers in his craft.
We brought this 1943 plane into Telluride, Colorado with a view to telling new stories and, like Parkinson some 70 years ago, I wanted to play on the alchemy of metallic beauty and female beauty.
The plane – which participated in D Day in 1944 before it was converted to a DC3 – looked striking at 9,000 feet and the cold winter light allowed its beauty to be fully celebrated. The pilot positioned the plane at an angle to allow me to have a definitive sense of place. There are few airfields in the world as breath-taking as Telluride, which was, of course, the reason we were there. There is a grandeur in the San Juan mountains that I have long been drawn to.
Glamour came late to Telluride: it was only developed as a ski resort in the 1970s and even then, it was proud of being Colorado’s best kept secret. But a hipster counterculture took root and Telluride morphed sharply from a tough mining town to a resort whose mere name evokes imagery of sex, drugs and rock and roll. It was quite some transition and Telluride became in vogue for Angelenos. The bond is now cemented and the town’s annual film festival highlights Hollywood’s 50- year love affair with the community.
Josie Canseco, my model for that cold morning, was made for the role of the bohemian Telluride party girl. I am not sure what’s in her suitcase, but I am sure she was ready for some fun in the mountains.” – David Yarrow
Available sizes
Large: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 50” x 102” in (127 cm x 259.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 65” x 117” in (165.1 cm x 297.2 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 34” x 69” in (86.36 cm x 175.3 cm)
- Framed Image: 49” x 84” in (124.5 cm x 213.4 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 Snow Patrol
AVAILABLE SIZES:
Standard
- Image size: 37" x 59"
- Framed with a 3" mat: 48" x 70"
- Framed with a 5" mat: 52" x 74"
Large
- Image size: 56" x 90"
- Framed with a 3" mat: 67" x 101"
- Framed with a 5" mat: 71" x 105"
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.