The Winner Takes All

"In Wellington, Florida—the equestrian world’s winter playground—polo may attract the Ralph Lauren crowd and the lead Palm Beach socialites, but showjumping is where the money is. It is a serious business in which the lead horses sell for many millions of dollars and the lead jumpers have celebrity status. This is not a hobby; show jumpers may be collegiate, but there is rivalry and competition at every level in Wellington. The lead events are well attended, often televised, and an occasion in themselves.

My preconception for this shot was that it should have an emphatic sense of place, but also a sense of occasion. There was always going to be three layers to the story: the foreground, which would lean on parody; the middle ground, which would highlight the height-defying skills of the horse and jumper; and then a final layer of the crowd and the palm trees to add contextual narrative. We are well versed in using space in this manner, but this was a greedy concept. I needed to fit a great deal in for the story to work.

There were so many people involved in making this tableau work. Firstly, the European supermodels—Frida Aasen from Norway and Nadine Leopold from Austria—then the owners of the wonderful Austin-Healey car who brought it from Arizona all the way to the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and finally the crowd who participated in the production in the most committed of ways; without their involvement there was no picture.

Most of all, I want to thank Ken and Emily Smith for access to their stunning facilities in Wellington and, of course, their son Spencer Smith—a world class showjumper—for lending his skill to this production."

- David Yarrow