David Yarrow: Itâs a Beautiful World and I Want to Tell Beautiful Stories

Sorrel Sky Galleries and David Yarrow Share Big Dreams

Sorrel Sky Gallery at 419 West Broadway, New York, NY; 125 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM; and 828 Main Avenue, Durango, CO places more David Yarrow photographs with collectors than immoderate of the dozens of galleries astir the satellite representing him. It’s a narration that began erstwhile Sorrel Sky Gallery proprietor and visionary, Shanan Campbell, met David Yarrow portion helium was successful Durango doing a photoshoot, and has developed into a relationship betwixt 2 radical with akin can-do attitudes toward life, impeccable enactment ethics, and large dreams.

David Yarrow makes photographs. He began photographing erstwhile helium was 8 years old, printing successful a acheronian country astatine 15, and connected the transportation astatine the World Cup astatine 20 capturing Diego Maradona hoisting the World Cup. Then came a vocation successful banking and concern wherever helium continued taking photographs to separate himself from his colleagues. When helium sold his hedge money successful 2014, the camera was the conveyance that allowed him to reevaluate his life. Today, helium is 1 of the top-grossing creation photographers successful the world.

“David Yarrow is not conscionable the champion lensman I’ve ever met, helium is 1 of the champion artists I person ever worked with,”  Shanan Campbell said astatine a caller three-galleries-in-four-day lawsuit featuring Yarrow.

As a teen, the darkroom acquisition of seeing thing travel done successful the developer tray captured Yarrow’s imagination. In different words, it was the tale’s extremity alternatively than the commencement of the process. Today helium is challenged by the atrocious ideas that go his champion ideas and however helium tin marque them travel to fruition.

“I deliberation I’m a romanticist, but equally, I’m a pragmatist earlier I’m a romanticist. Digital photography does marque the workflow quicker. It makes my benignant of photography easier. There’s much immediacy to it.” David Yarrow

Immediacy, proximity, depth, an unwavering enactment ethic, and being his ain worst professional person propelled Yarrow to the forefront of photography. He recognizes his fallibility and presses connected stating that his threshold for what excites him gets higher and higher and higher. “I request more. I’m greedy,” helium laughs with his Scottish charm.

Recently helium recovered much successful South Africa, the Namibian desert, Positano, Ischia, Capri, Italy, and St. Tropez, France. And helium points retired that the assemblage of enactment hanging successful immoderate 1 of Sorrel Sky Galleries, aggregates to little than fractional a 2nd captured by the camera successful the masterful hands of Yarrow. He questions whether reportage and taking pictures are considered creation erstwhile lone 5-6% of the creation shown astatine the large creation fairs similar Basel successful Miami successful December volition beryllium photography. For him, it's an iterative process of building, refining, and improving the making of pictures.

“Ansel Adams said photography is not astir the camera, it’s astir the poems you’ve read, the euphony you perceive to, the loves you’ve made, and the loves you’ve lost. In different words, it’s an outer manifestation of your interior soul.” 

If that is the case, past Yarrow’s interior psyche is filled with quality and escapade (and immoderate tongue-in-cheek humor). He is an authentic artist, and his zest for beingness and surviving is evident successful his pictures, which are meticulously planned and executed, often involving elaborate setups, pulling divers elements together, and telling a compelling story. Whether photographing wildlife successful their earthy habitats oregon staging analyzable scenes with celebrities and models, David Yarrow's committedness to originality and ocular interaction is unwavering.

“It’s a beauteous world. I privation to archer beauteous stories,” Yarrow tells the crowds who stitchery to perceive to him speech astir his work. “If determination is beingness determination other and our great-great-great-great grandchildren find it retired there, it is ne'er going to beryllium fractional arsenic overmuch amusive arsenic this.”

The emotion of quality is the instauration for Sorrel Sky Galleries. Its halfway values are beauty, excellence, innovation, inspiration, integrity, and passion. The extremity for everyone is to make meaningful connections with artists and collectors. Campbell chooses to enactment with artists who person a passionateness for their work. With her finely honed acumen for creation and business, she leads with a ‘let’s marque that happen’ attitude.

“I’m not conscionable selling a mass-produced product, but an artist’s bosom and talent. And selling David Yarrow is fun.” Shanan Campbell

Some questions and answers with David Yarrow 

Sorrel Sky: What is the astir important connection erstwhile it comes to photography?
Yarrow: Access. Getting successful the presumption to usage the camera. When Jack Ma, the Chinese businessman, approached maine due to the fact that his lad is simply a lensman and wanted an apprenticeship with me, my quid pro quo was having Jack assistance maine get entree to Siberia wherever I could photograph Siberian Tigers in January 2024.
Sorrel Sky: What is your root of confidence, and from wherever does your authenticity come?
Yarrow: Stephen Spielberg is my hero. And helium said that his biggest fearfulness was boring people. If Stephen Spielberg is disquieted astir boring people, what anticipation bash we have? So, my biggest fearfulness is boring people. I’ve got this acute consciousness that determination is excessively overmuch photographic contented successful the world. If I question to Yosemite astatine dawn tomorrow, I’ve got nary close to instrumentality a photograph that the remainder of the satellite needs oregon wants to see. It’s been truthful photographed and determination is thing caller that I’m doing. I deliberation that consciousness of self-doubt astir the request for others to beryllium awakened by your enactment is not thing that is shared by a batch of practitioners. They tin beryllium precise dedicated and strong, but they photograph what they privation to photograph alternatively than what the extracurricular satellite is going to beryllium grabbed by interest-wise. That’s a precise delicate subject. But I’m precise driven by the reaction. I deliberation the bedrock of the full happening is simply a precise rigorous attack toward authenticity. The astir exhausting happening for an creator is to beryllium inauthentic. Imagine spending each of your clip arsenic an creator copying what different radical are doing. How exhausting.
Sorrel Sky: Some cardinal images people your career. One of them is Jaws, taken successful Cape Town. Talk astir that representation for a bit. 
David Yarrow: I could spot that the representation was sharp, which you can’t spot connected a boat. And it was sharp, and determination was nary crushed it should beryllium sharp. I retrieve getting rather tearful. And I knew from that infinitesimal that I couldn’t spell backward. It's worthy remembering it was lone fourteen years ago, but I knew I couldn’t spell back. But it's 1 happening past to accidental you're going to proceed to bash it, but it would lone marque consciousness with a program – a concern plan. It took 3 to 4 years truly for that program to go 1 that had credibility and that I could rise wealth for from backers due to the fact that the program was that we were going to put successful content. I had nary galleries representing maine astir the world.
Sorrel Sky: Another cardinal representation for you was Mankind taken successful 2015 successful South Sudan. It’s specified a almighty image. 
David Yarrow: I don’t similar talking astir the merits of my ain photographs due to the fact that it's for others to find that, but I conjecture the champion pictures are ones to beryllium looked astatine for a agelong clip and tin ne'er beryllium taken again. The champion pictures are authentic. I deliberation it was a operation of those cardinal things. It was a haunting Dante’s inferno but had a alternatively incongruous serenity. It conscionable worked. I retrieve it was astir a week aft I had taken it, and I was successful America astatine a assemblage that had antecedently turned maine down, and they took maine connected consecutive distant aft that. I deliberation enactment ethic helped for 10 years, but that was astir apt the tipping point.

Sorrel Sky: Do you person different images that you judge are arsenic arsenic iconic arsenic those we haven’t talked about, that radical haven’t yet recognized, oregon that you cognize are the best?
David Yarrow: Sure. I’m precise wide astir the thought that your champion pictures are astir apt your champion sellers. It’s a voting machine. If I look astatine my 10 champion sellers implicit time, they volition not beryllium patently removed from what I see to beryllium my champion 10 pictures. And that’s not due to the fact that I’ve got impatient; it’s due to the fact that you’ve asked the nationalist to vote, and that’s however they voted. If you inquire radical what their favourite movie is and they reply that it’s immoderate Danish creation location movie they’ve watched once, but they’ve watched the Shawshank Redemption 20 times, I don’t deliberation they’re being precise honorable astir their favorites. Another mode to deliberation astir it is if, for immoderate bonzer reason, the warehouse wherever each our information is stored spontaneously exploded and I mislaid everything, which representation would I accidental I would ne'er get again? And I deliberation it would be The Bills, with the bison successful the snow. I’ll ne'er get that representation again, and nor volition anyone else. Whereas the pictures successful the bars with Cindy Crawford, I could effort to get it again. You know, I got a representation of a tiger this twelvemonth successful China, and I deliberation that’s a large shot. I won’t get that again; I’ll conscionable get precise acold and homesick. But I deliberation the representation of the polar bear, 78 Degrees North is one. A batch of businesses speech astir the aged 90/10 world. It’s existent for photography arsenic well—90% of our gross for the past 10 years has travel from 10% of our pictures.
Sorrel Sky Gallery: We spot that immoderate of your photographs are informed and influenced by those different photographers who came before–some of the radical you admired oregon were influenced by. You’ve done immoderate things that echo Norman Parkinson, and determination are a batch of Slim Aarons and possibly a small Peter Lindbergh and Ansel Adams. But are determination immoderate different photographers that you’ve admired? 
David Yarrow: Harry Benson, my chap Scot, is 1 of my heroes and 1 of my beloved friends. And I’ve got tremendous admiration for Harry. He's fixed immoderate photography gems, and he’s a gem of a guy. He photographed each president since Eisenhower and was The Beatles’ photographer. He was with Bobby Kennedy erstwhile helium was assassinated. He’s an bonzer man. And his celebrated saying is that photography is conscionable 2/15th of a second.