Recent Events – August
G & M Design Gallery, Monaco - Events
 
Our global tour kicked off in Monaco in early September in the stunning G&M Design Gallery. We will show at some well positioned venues over the next six months, but I doubt any gallery will have a more recognised location. This was a landmark event for us - the previous artist on show was fellow British photographer - David Bailey, who set a high bar. No pressure then!
It was a thrill to have HSH Prince Albert II and HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco attend one of the events and the private dinner afterwards and we look forward to collaborating more with him at his famous Monte Carlo Gala for the Global Ocean in late September. There will be pressure for my work to raise serious money - last year the gala raised an astonishing €21 million.
 
 
 
HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco, Kevin Richardson, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and David Yarrow
 
 
HSH Princess Charlene and I are both Ambassadors for the Kevin Richardson Foundation in South Africa and Kevin flew up from Jo'burg for the week. There were certainly a few South African accents knocking around over the few days of events and functions.
To the left of G&M Design gallery is one of the most iconic restaurants in the whole of the South of France - Sass Cafe. The Sass family welcomed DYP into their celebrated den with great warmth and it does almost seem that the gallery is an extension of the restaurant. With Sammy Sass - himself a legend - encouraging footfall from his club to the gallery way past midnight, this is a venue boasting unusual office hours. We certainly seemed to be doing a great deal of business at 2 am and I see a clever formula developing here.
 
 
 
Chloe Green, David Yarrow and Tina Green
 
 
There was a large DYP contingent in the Principality and we would all like to express our thanks to Lady Green who did an outstanding job over the course of the week. The show will go on for two months and I fully expect this venue to become one of the most important for DYP, not just in Europe, but the whole world. There is the chance in Monaco to meet major art investors with considerable wall space – indeed, over the course of two days, one gentleman picked up 12 of my works. That kind of purchase goes a long way to making a show.
Tina, thank you from us all - you put us on the map in a demanding and highly discerning marketplace and we all had a blast.
 
The crowd gathers for the show at G&M Design Gallery, Monaco
 
 
 
David Yarrow and Benjamin Mendy - Sammy Sass, Bruna Magagna and David Yarrow
 
 
 
David Yarrow book signing gets slightly crowded - David Yarrow and David Coulthard
 
 
 
Flavio Briatore and David Yarrow - David Yarrow delivers a speech on recent work and conservation
Harper's Bazaar - Assignment
 
It was a great thrill to be asked to shoot an editorial fashion story for Harper’s Bazaar in Botswana in August. I have great admiration for Dame Glenda Bailey - the British editor of the famous New York magazine and I was determined to do a good job with the brands - which included Gucci, Prada, McQueen, Chanel, Yves St Laurent and Dior.
Working on projects like this is challenging and tests one’s creative instincts to the full as we must work quick and we must work smart. The 12 pages that will be in the October edition of Harper’s are a credit to a great team, which at one stage included some Kalahari bushmen. This gave me the opportunity to showcase my new book to an audience I was hardly expecting.
As a result of the success of this shoot, I look forward to collaborating more with Glenda and her team in the year ahead. It is exactly the kind of work with which we are excited to be involved.
 
 
Prelaunch of The New Book
 
The reaction to the new book has been extremely encouraging and whilst it is still on preorder, they will be released in Europe from 15th September and the US from 15th October. It is our hope that sales will far exceed that of the old book, which itself had four print runs.
 
Pride Rock - Assignment
 
In the third week of August, we undertook one of the more ambitious projects in the history of DYP - to try and make a picture of a male lion on Pride Rock - the spiritual home of the Lion King. We recognised that the Disney remake of the celebrated animated movie would be one of the most important films of the year and serve to reawaken emotions with regard to the glory of African wildlife and in particular the lion.
The idea involved shooting at Pride Rock in Borana, Kenya and then in South Africa with an enormous replica of Pride Rock we had commissioned. There was a great deal of planning and precision involved and it will probably be the only time I photograph a lion from a cherry picker, 100 feet in the air.
We are set to unveil the final result - Pride Rock - with Piers Morgan on his TV show, Good Morning Britain on 30th September. Afterwards there will be a press conference at The Lanesborough in London. I look forward to the reaction to the artwork which is embargoed until that time. I hope this will raise huge sums for lion conservation.