Meet the Fockers
Texas – 2020
I have been fortunate to travel around much of the world taking photographs – but I don’t think I have found a better backdrop to stage a shoot than this remote outpost on the Mexican border in Big Bend Ranch State Park. It was a hell of a drive from the team’s base in Marfa and securing permits was challenging, but I knew it would be worthwhile – the building and the mountains behind were just so good. They play effortlessly into the lore of the Wild West. Better still, the area is called Contraband Creek. The nearest town of note is the bizarre art community of Terlingua.
It is difficult to imagine the circumstances that led to people living around here unless they were in a witness protection programme or cooking crystal meth. It’s a sketchy place that would look at home in a Mad Max movie, not mainstream Texas. It was clear that whatever I did with this gift of a canvas, the concept had to be badass and mean. Josie Canseco – the Victoria’s Secret girl – was perfect for the lead role as she can look badass and still retain her femininity and sexuality. My instincts were that my camera lens should be encroaching upon a place of outlaws and that the underlying narrative should major on the dangers of trespassing. There could be no happy ending for the trespasser here.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
Large: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 84” in (142.24 cm x 213.36 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 99” in (180.34 cm x 251.46 cm)
Standard: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 56” in (93.98 cm x 142.24 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 71” in (132.08 cm x 180.34 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.
3:10 to Yuma
Railway tracks can be visually strong props for photographers and filmmakers as they lead the eye and also offer a palpable sense of travel and adventure. The problem is that train tracks are mostly live and therefore out of bounds for working artists.
Railroads played an integral role in the push West in the 19th century and the pioneering spirit that characterised their construction has long fascinated me. We located a disused track not far from Marfa in West Texas stretching all the way to Presidio on the Mexican border. It ran through private land and in one cattle ranch a modest station had been built to the side of the track for the Oscar winning 2007 movie “There will be blood”. We negotiated terms with the ranch owner and he gave us access to film on a location well known to Daniel Day Lewis.
My preconception was to push modern sensibilities to one side and to play to the stern masculine traditions of Westerns. I wanted a grittiness to the narrative and a simple story of final frontier “badness” at work. The more you complicate Westerns, the less effective they can become. I like to tell stories using archetypal imagery and bring my own vision of Western lore. I think it is always better to exaggerate and amplify – just as Tarantino did so exceptionally well in “Django Unchained”. Why dumb it down?
This was not a simple set up – getting an authentic wagon to this remote location required considerable resourcefulness. The composition and lighting work and the model – Josie Canseco – played her tragic role wonderfully well. Sometimes an idea just comes off and there is not much I would change in this frame.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 89” in (142.24 cm x 226.06 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 104” in (180.34 cm x 264.16 cm)
STANDARD: ALL EDITIONS ALLOCATED OR SOLD. Please contact us for more details
- Image Size: 37” x 59” in (93.98 cm x 149.86 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 74" in (132.08 cm x 187.96 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 Magnificent Seven
Marfa, Texas – 2020
The outdoor bar at The Lost Horse Saloon in Marfa, West Texas, is just how I hoped an outdoor bar, in traditional cowboy country, would look like – a mishmash of wood, corrugated iron, weaponry, stuffed animals and beer merchandise. My preference is that these bars should be cluttered and deeply individualistic – there are no formulas in West Texas other than in the Crystal Meth motorhomes. On our scouting, I was immediately drawn to the sign on the front of the bar which located the destination in the most authoritative of ways. Marfa may only have a modest population of 2,121, but almost everyone in Texas has heard of Marfa. It is the art outpost where “Burning Man” meets “No Country for Old Men”. Absolutely nothing about the place – which sits three hours from the nearest commercial airport – is in any way normal.
My creative prompts in using the facade of the bar were led by two dominating objectives – firstly, to make sure that everything and everyone in the picture earned their space and secondly, I wanted the lighting to remain fairly dim so that the character of the joint was retained. To flood the narrative with light would give me greater depth of focus, but it could turn the bar into a sitcom studio. We needed to hold back. The magnificent seven all earned their place and it was a thrill to work with the lovely Nathalie Emmanuel – the English actress that many will know from playing Missandei in Game of Thrones. She was much easier to instruct than the horse, but he is so used to being in that bar that we got there in the end. The white nose of the horse was a bonus.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 67 x 93 inches framed
- Standard: 48 x 65 inches framed
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.
Living Without Borders
I took this photograph of the legendary West Texas cowboy – Ty Mitchell – on a sandbank on the Rio Grande. Ty stands 6ft 5” tall and my general assessment is that not much fazes this guy. Meanwhile, the location is about as good as it gets and is rather wonderfully named Contraband Creek.
I was standing in Mexico and 20 yards across the river was the US. Every time I walked knee deep across the river to change a lens or camera, I entered America and then on my return I re-entered Mexico. I think I actually entered America four times in a morning – all rather surreal with this talk of a wall.
I would like to thank the US Border Patrol in Texas for being so accommodating to our crew that day in Big Bend National Park. They – like me – must think “The Wall” is now a long way off because in 2020 the US has a real crisis on its hands.
Coronavirus does not discriminate and does not recognise fame, borders, passports, race or religion. It is the ultimate leveller and rams home our mortality and our fragility. There is little good news right now, but one eventual positive is that we should emerge from this as less selfish and less discriminating people.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 67 x 74 inches
- Standard: 48 x 53 inches
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 Lost Horse Saloon
Marfa, Texas – 2020
A great facade for an authentic Texas working bar with the two neon lights outside. But this frame was a technical challenge because these two lights offered insufficient ambient light to give any detail outside – even before contemplating capturing a rearing horse.
This meant using some LED lighting but we had to be careful not to kill the mood. The only card I had in my hand was that I could open up the lens and sacrifice depth of field, as all the detail I wanted would be within a narrow range from my camera. This gave me a chance.
The girls did a great job, as did the cowboy and the horse. The Heath Ledger type cowboy in the bar was a good addition and then it was just down to luck with the horse on a longish shutter speed. A year ago, we did a similar outdoor shot in Big Timber, Montana. Coyote Ugly – as we called it – was well received. The Lost Horse Saloon was much more of a challenge on so many levels. The two certainly complement each other very well. Maybe this is the start of something.
Available Sizes
LARGE: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 56” x 71” in (142.24 cm x 180.34 cm)
- Framed Image: 71" x 86" in (180.34 cm x 218.44 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12 + 3 AP
- Image Size: 37" x 47" in (93.98 cm x 116.84 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 62” in (132.08 cm x 157.48 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.
Amarillo By Morning
Wagons evoke childhood memories of watching John Wayne Westerns on the BBC on cold winter evenings. No mode of transport is more emblematic of the great push West and the attendant dangers. For a storyteller of life on the final frontier, props don’t get any better, but finding an authentic one and taking it to the pre-researched location in the wilderness of West Texas is a challenge and an expense.
Anyhow, those issues overcome, the biggest problem with photographing a wagon on the move is that it does not suit my style of photography which would tend to be to shoot towards the oncoming wagon. This is simply because the horses’ heads will be at least 10 feet in front of the people driving the wagon. One or other would be in focus, but never both. To have the foreground subject out of focus is a tension point in any photograph and to have the human characters out of focus would seem fairly suboptimal. I wrestled with this the night before the shot and finally it dawned on me what to do.
I think it works and I have always wanted to have a picture with this title. I am sure they made it to Amarillo by morning.The whole image smells of old Texas and that was the goal.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 65 x 114 inches framed
- Standard: 48 x 80 inches framed
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 End of the Line
Longhorn cattle are not only emblematic of Texas, they are also the most visually spectacular cows in the world. On location on the abandoned film set of “There Will Be Blood”, we tried different combinations with a few prize-winning cows. But the reality was very clear – they are not camera friendly. In fact, they are considerably less compliant than the elephants of Amboseli, Kenya.
To achieve this composition was a real test of the team’s patience and all my thanks go to Ryan Thompson and his fellow cowboys, who worked with great skill to engineer this frame. I was doubly appreciative, as lying on the old rail sleepers is not the most comfortable way to spend a morning. It was critical that the bull was facing me and there were no tension points with his fantastic horns. Rail roads were so integral to the great push West as indeed were wagons and it struck me that they could complement each other outside a station. There is no real need for people to be in the image – there is enough there and the composition works. This is a personal favourite of mine.
Available size options with and without framing are below;
- Large: 67 x 93 inches
- Standard: 48 x 65 inches
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.
Happy Hour
Texas – 2020
It’s “Happy Hour” and yet everyone in this photograph looks fairly short of happiness – but of course that was my instruction. The less levity, the more the sense of a foreign land. Marfa is foreign land to most of us.
The Lost Horse Saloon Bar in the town is well known – in no small part because the legendary Anthony Bourdain filmed here during his “Parts Unknown” series. He chose well – it has depth to it, both literally and metaphorically. The owner, Tye Mitchell, is also the real deal and often brings his horse to the bar. He is no Bianca Jagger and the Lost Horse Saloon is no Studio 54 – but this is Texas, not Manhattan and horses at bars don’t seem that incongruous. It almost goes with the territory.
When we photograph in bars in America, there tends to be a couple of commonly used tactics. Firstly, we tend to have an open bar and secondly, we also take control of that bar and ask anyone that is not right for the picture to sit behind the camera – albeit beer or whisky in hand. Everyone has to earn their right to be included.
This picture was taken around 11pm and the bar bill was already in excess of $2000 and asking politely for everyone to listen and be compliant was only going to become more and more of a challenge. That’s where Ty came in handy – he bosses his bar with some authority.
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 45” x 97” in (114.3 cm x 246.38 cm)
- Framed Image: 60” x 112” in (152.4 cm x 284.48 cm)
STANDARD: ALL EDITIONS ALLOCATED OR SOLD. Please contact us for more details.
- Image Size: 30” x 65” in (76.2 cm x 165.1 cm)
- Framed Image: 45” x 80” in (114.3 cm x 203.2 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.
Game of Pistols
Texas – 2020
Game of Thrones fans will recognise the lead in this picture – Nathalie Emmanuel who played Missandei in the iconic series. GOT received 58 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most ever by a drama series, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019.
Nathalie, like me, is from London and it was rather surreal to have a good number of Brits together in our team on the Mexican border. She is refined, intelligent and understated – all of which made her a joy to work with.
Hair and make-up are so important in images like this and I want to thank Nikki Parisi from LA who is a regular in our crew for her talent and craft. Given what Nathalie is used to on set, we did not want to disappoint her. Composition is critical to my work – it is the engine room of any picture that passes our tests. The distribution of content works here and there was quite a bit to fit in. I wonder if Nathalie has ever stood in front of two men with an average height of 6ft 7” – even on the set of Game of Thrones.
AVAILABLE SIZES:
LARGE: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 56” x 81” in (142.24 cm x 205.74 cm)
- Framed Image: 71” x 96” in (180.34 cm x 243.84 cm)
STANDARD: Edition of 12
- Image Size: 37” x 53” in (93.98 cm x 134.62 cm)
- Framed Image: 52” x 68” in (132.08 cm x 172.72 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.