9 incredible images from the world’s leading wildlife photographer, David Yarrow
Whether he is tracking bull elephants in the dustbowls of Kenya, or staring down a black leopard on the plains of South Africa, world-leading wildlife photographer David Yarrow has spent half his life taking pictures. He's pretty good at it, too. Now, as his latest exhibition – David Yarrow: The Untouchables – opens in London, you get to take a look (and read his exclusive commentary) at some of the incredible images you can expect to see. Just don't get too close. David Yarrow: The Untouchables is showing at the Maddox Gallery, Westbourne Grove, from 15 September 15 – 5 October
David Yarrow1/9Amboseli, Kenya – 2017"This portrait is indeed my signature style with ellies, but I have never had a bull elephant with such huge tusks closing in to within 4 feet of my camera. It has the hallmarks of a studio composition, not something garnered by perseverance from the untamed dustbowl of Amboseli.
I have waited a long time for this shot – 6 years in fact. Big elephants have sometimes come right or left of my remote camera and sometimes smaller tuskers have come head on, but this is the golden combination. Our eye is grabbed by the elephant and he won’t let go. Six years was worth it, I reckon.
But far more importantly, the majesty of the elephant gives the photograph topicality and relevance. How on earth is the ongoing slaughter of this magnificent primal species happening on our earth on our watch? This is a picture that the world needs to see and I will do all I can for it to be emblematic.
I wrestled with what to call this image. In the end, I felt the name must convey his sense of power and sovereignty. This elephant answers to no one in his community. But he brings to his role, not just power, but something perhaps less tangible – a mystique that demands our deference and respect. He is ‘The Don’."
David Yarrow2/9South Africa - 2016"There is no doubt this image of a black leopard in South Africa, grabs the attention - social media immediately informed on that – but my role in the strength of the image is secondary. It is the magnificence of the cat that is key – I just happened to have the very best equipment and to be in the right place at the right time. Rich blacks tend to work in considered photography - Matisse said, 'It has taken me 40 years to discover my favourite colour is black'.
The best colour to work against black is white or off white and this is where the image becomes a little special. I had pursued the leopard for an hour on foot – always circumventing to get ahead and the big moment – if it came – could have come against any backdrop. That the leopard should pose side against the light, in tall wispy grass was the best possible outcome. Whilst luck is the 'residue of design', I totally acknowledge that this is a lucky image. But then again, who cares?"
David Yarrow3/9Svalbard, Norway - 2017"I should start by saying that I have generally been disappointed by my own work with polar bears in Svalbard. I haven’t tended to do them or their habitat justice. This is a 'Giants’ Kingdom' and my images from previous trips have been too marginal to do either the giants or their kingdom justice. Luck evens itself out, but nature can seem cruel in its distribution of content and in this barren archipelago, I don't recall many favours until June 2017.
This year, however, I did have some luck and came home with three images. There is no doubt in my mind that this photograph of a big male polar bear lends weight to the contention that wildlife photography does not need to be reportage – it can be art. The photograph is elevated by the negative space and the bear’s anonymity rather than weakened by it. Since 2011, I have spent over 30 days shooting in Svalbard and this is my favourite image of a polar bear in this part of the arctic – indeed the more I look at it, the prouder I am. As my fellow Scottish photographer and friend, the great Harry Benson, once said, 'Great images can never be repeated'. Others will decide if this is a great image, but it is certainly not going to be repeated.
The eye is immediately grabbed by the detail we recognise but have perhaps never seen - the distinctive pads on the sole of his foot. The central pad, that resembles the Nike-style 'swoosh', is the epicentre of a photograph that owes its differentiating content entirely to this right foot. The image is made complete by its own lack of completeness – the storytelling is started by the camera and finished by the viewer. We are asked to finish the story, not just read the story and the spartan economy of the narrative helps us along the way.
Less is more in the arctic – its beauty is in its simplicity and the enormity of the white detail. It is not a noisy place – in fact it is characterised by the lack of noise. The image pays homage to that variable – it conveys a true sense of place. This is not a natural human habitat – it is in fact our final frontier.
The irony was that it was the very last of a sequence of 60 images I took of the polar bear. A second after this moment, this most solitary of predators was over the horizon and our paths will never again cross. I did not press the trigger with this image in mind – it was such an intense 15 minutes that it would be most disingenuous to suggest that it was preconceived. The heart was beating too fast to consider creating art – these moments just sometimes happen. It was only when I returned to the ship, that I realised I had an extremely evocative photograph."
David Yarrow4/9Kaktovik, Alaska - 2015"On one unforgettable August evening in the North Slope of Alaska, I was offered a spectacularly close encounter with a group of polar bears. In the modest village of Kaktovik, I worked with two locals who had a boat license to trawl along the land slip. They knew the topography of the area intimately and I had briefed them on my style which favoured height alignment and close proximity. However, they also work within strict safety laws and are absolutely forbidden to approach or harass the bears. They can stay still and allow the bears to approach them, so long as they are protected by the hull of their little fishing boat.
I trusted my Inuit guide - he had a weathered and wise countenance and spoke with such familiarity on each bear we saw from our little boat. After two hours of trawling the land strip one evening, the big moment arrived and on reflection I did the very best I could do given the special scene that unfolded in front of me.
This image was run in the British press a few days after my encounter on Barter Island. It is something of a platitude to say that the bigger an image is printed, the greater the detail, but on this occasion it is very pertinent for two reasons.
Firstly, a polar bear is a huge animal. If possible, any portrait should reflect this.
Secondly, the bear is pin sharp around its eyes. I think that I must have been as close to a polar bear as is possible in the wild and lived to tell the tale. I was also using Nikon’s flagship 58m lens, which captures every hair at the assigned focal point. When the first large print of the image came off the drum in LA, one of the team turned to me and said, ‘David, look at the eyes – you are in them!’. He was right; I had inadvertently taken a selfie through the eyes of a polar bear."
David Yarrow5/9Lewa, Kenya 2017"Andy Warhol once said, 'My favourite colour is black and my other favourite colour is white'. On the basis of this alone, I fancy that this image might have struck a chord with him. I have been seeking an abstract image like this for some time and have consistently failed partly because the zebra is so skittish and this has prevented me from getting close enough to play with the patterns.
But the bigger issue is that if all the zebras are on the same piece of at land, as is usually the case, one animal tends to block the body of those behind. As I thought about the riddle, it dawned on me that the odds of success would narrow if I could find zebras stacked on a hill. This rules out the majority of locations because of their flat topography.
Lewa was therefore going to be my best chance of an outstanding image – there are hills and steep areas where the zebra can congregate. Of course there is no assurance that zebras will be in these areas at the same time as my camera lens. But the more time I employed the greater the chance of success.
I had then to get lucky with the formations. The grevy zebra, for which Lewa is renowned, also have such distinctive and pristine stripes that are thinner than other breeds to the south. The stripes are also very much white on a black background as opposed to black on a white coat and this works well.
When this image presented itself in my viewfinder, I could not quite believe my luck. Thank goodness I remembered to press the shutter. Every grevy in the world has distinctive markings and this image makes that point with a clarity that will be difficult to beat."
David Yarrow6/9Harbin, China – 2016"There are very few wild Siberian tigers left in China, perhaps fewer than 40, but there are conservation centres where the tigers are protected and breeding programmes have been successfully introduced. If it were not for these centres, the animals would be extinct, so people who talk rather too emotionally about ‘wild or not wild’ are missing the point. The tigers in these conservancies are not tame – they will eat a man in a heartbeat – but they are protected and looked after in their natural habitat. It is not a zoo but it is safe acreage for magnificent animals. Conversely, it is not safe acreage for humans and security is extremely tight.
In January this year, I travelled to Harbin in North East China, reputedly the coldest major city in the world in winter months. Indeed, when I arrived, the temperature was -35C. The area has a tiger conservancy so sightings are guaranteed.
I hired a fixer and an interpreter, and we went, bearing gifts, to the breeding-centre manager in his office. I showed him my work with lions and elephants, and also my image that President Xi had received during Prince William’s state visit in the summer. I had no idea what the manager was saying but safety clearly came first in his mindset. It was clear there was no way I was getting out of a vehicle – he made a munching expression with his face and I got the gist. He agreed, however, to me sitting in a vehicle with removable windows and the biggest possible gap between the cage bars, big enough for my camera but not a tiger’s head. The interpreters also arranged for radio contact between my driver and the principal feeder of the tigers, who brings the tigers sheep, deer and chickens to eat, and throws them out of the back of his 4 x 4 in a hurried manner that hints of a few scary moments in the past.
The first day in the park was used for scouting. It was freezing but I needed to spend time finding a hill and then think about the hill versus the position of the cold winter sun, and where our bashed-up vehicle with my eight-inch gap could sit comfortably on an icy slope and capture a collective of tigers.
I watched the tigers around that hill on the first morning and I saw an opportunity, but I needed big depth of field, which removed the possibility of using any telephoto lenses. It was clear that I was going to have to be very close and looking uphill with a standard lens or an 85m. Then we just had to work with nature and be patient.
The second day was again a freezing -25C, but that was exactly what I wanted. I needed a picture before 10am, as after that the winter sun is not kind enough for group portraits, so this meant working at the coldest part of the day. We had bought 25 chickens and the driver spoke constantly on his radio to the tiger feeder about what we were looking for. It was clear from their heated exchanges that this was a first for them. It was a partnership between me and four Chinese people: the driver, the feeder and his assistant and, most importantly, the interpreter.
The Siberians is a big moment in my journey. It is visceral and demands attention. As someone said to me soon after I took it, there is a deadly serenity to the image. I could not have expressed it better myself. Pleasingly, all the tigers are pin sharp, so I got my maths right. Indeed, it almost looks like the cover of an HBO boxset. As with The Sopranos, I hope they all become stars. They made a great picture for me that day in North East China."
David Yarrow7/9**Alaska - 2017 ** "Over the years, I have spent many days working close to grizzlies in Alaska and this is surely my most visually arresting photograph. The intimacy is courtesy of a well-positioned camera and a 28 mm wide angle lens. The bear was big, primeval and menacing, and in this instant, just two feet from the camera.
Moraine Creek is not an easy destination to get to for first light, but that was our preferred schedule. The weather forecast was for unrelenting sunshine, unusual for Alaska, and we had little appetite to work on the river with a high summer sun above us.
We were on site just after dawn and the remote camera was positioned after studying the fishing pattern of the big male bear. I prefer to photograph against the light, but at seven am this is a risky strategy as shooting directly into the sun can jeopardise an otherwise strong image. The route of the river meant that there were no other options at this time, but at least with light behind me, I would have some depth of field.
I was begging the bear to come to the camera and he did exactly that – with a head held high and a face full of energy. I knew that if my maths was right, I had a big image. As soon as the bear was ten yards up river, I ran and grabbed the camera. It was 'in the can' – the project was wrapped and we were home for breakfast."
David Yarrow8/9Dinokeng, South Africa 2017"It is integral to my approach to photography to see focus as the variable that can never be compromised. This probably hints at my beginnings as a sports photographer. The shorter the distance between subject and camera, the more skill and precision is required. Think of cows close to a train window as against cows in the distance.
There is no room for error at all in the taking of the image – especially when using a lens like a 20mm – if the focus is an inch behind or ahead of the subject’s eye, the image will lose its 'wow factor'. I won’t print it. Even with a reasonable motor drive, this is a low percentage approach.
I miss most often by being early but also sometimes by being marginally late. However, when it works, the results can be sensational. This image of Emma – a lioness within Kevin Richardson’s sanctuary – speaks for itself. I don’t need to comment on the detail in her face – it’s there for all to see.
There is more information in this portrait then any other lioness shot I have taken in my life. It is as simple as that. I think the big print is about life size and it is immensely powerful. What a magnificent cat and not a bad image as well."
David Yarrow9/9Amboseli, Kenya – 2017"Bang! This is a big shot of 2017. In truth, it is a lucky shot on the widest angle lens I have – the 20m. The subject needs to be so close otherwise it will always be 'loose' and this requires a great deal of predictive analysis and good fortune. I am clearly not with the camera!
The composition is an act of god – but I am willing take it. The frame within the frame. The big bull had to block the late afternoon sun otherwise there was no picture and he kindly did that, which allowed the lighting to be energetic and dramatic. The whole picture - almost full frame - will never be repeated. This immersive study of their kingdom is a complete one off."
