David Yarrow
Biography
"I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture before in which the subject is less than one per cent of the image and yet everyone’s eye is immediately grabbed by that one point. That was always my intention".
Scottish photographer David Yarrow is a pioneer of fine art photography, known for visiting isolated locations and communities to capture the sublime beauty of the natural world. His dramatic and highly evocative images, usually black and white, fuse the knowledgeable approach of David Attenborough with Ridley Scott’s visual drama and the exquisite composition of Ansel Adams. His photographs fetch high prices across international auction houses, making Yarrow one of the most coveted photographers alive today. He has equally shown an unchanging commitment to charitable causes and protecting wildlife through fundraising for various NGOs and the British NHS.
Yarrow was born in Glasgow in 1966 and started his photography career working for the London Times at the age of 20, taking pictures of the World Cup Final in Mexico City. He famously photographed Diego Maradona holding the World Cup which propelled the photographer to stardom. After graduating from Edinburgh university, Yarrow pursued a career in finance and continued producing photography at the same time.
Yarrow is most famous for his visceral, powerful photography of life on earth, specifically wildlife. He cites the photojournalism of Robert Capa as a major inspiration for his work and has produced printed photographs of the elephants and lions of the African savannahs to the penguin colonies of Antarctica. His signature style is high resolution, black and white photographs with a focus on shadows and heavy saturation, resulting in an evocative and dramatic effect.
His other famous series Storytelling, which resulted in the release of his latest book, fuses elements of wildlife with urban drama to a highly aesthetic effect, consisting of expertly staged compositions. The book’s foreword was written by Cindy Crawford. All the profits from the copies purchased through David Yarrow Photography Ltd will be donated to the UW Health Kids Cancer Care Charity. David and Cindy’s on-going collaboration since 2019 has raised over $3m for the UW Health Kids Cancer Care Charity.
David’s Series of Lives of Others saw him travelling to remote locations to focus on indigenous communities and landscapes, capturing various mesmerizing moments from across cultures worldwide. His most recent works, taken during the pandemic, are set in America and explore the mythology of the Wild West.
Yarrow is active in a range of ambassadorial roles from WildArk and The Kevin Richardson Foundation, to Nikon and UBS and has shown continual commitment to charitable causes over the course of his career. Raising over $10m for humanitarian and conservation organisations, Yarrow is the affiliated photographer of the African Conservation Charity Tusk Trust.
His photograph The Wolves of Wall Street, signed by Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese sold for $200,000 with all proceeds going to a conservation NGO. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Yarrow also released a print called Our Pride in support of the British NHS as a part of the Art For Heroes campaign in conjunction with Maddox Gallery.
As one of the best-selling and most famous photographers alive, some of Yarrow’s most impressive auction sales include the 12/12 edition of the photograph Africa selling for $106,250 in 2019, and the work Old Testament fetching $52,500 in the same year.
In 2021, Yarrow collaborated with international supermodel Cindy Crawford to recreate her 1992 Pepsi advert in order to raise much needed funds for the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison Wiscoinsin. By the end of the year, the duo had raised over 1 million dollars for the charity.
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