David Yarrow

Artistic Style

Yarrow's photographs are immediately recognisable for their scale, their sense of proximity, and their cinematic construction. He works almost exclusively in black and white and warm sepia tones, favouring wide-angle lenses that place the viewer inside the frame rather than observing it from a safe distance. This is deliberate: Yarrow has spoken often about wanting his images to feel like film stills rather than documentary records, drawing on classic Americana, Old Hollywood and the visual language of cinema to give his subjects - animal or human - a sense of narrative and drama. His compositions are typically stripped of colour and clutter, isolating a single gesture or expression against a vast, often unpeopled landscape. The result is a body of work that sits deliberately between fine art and documentary photography, technically precise but emotionally direct.

Wildlife Photography

Wildlife remains the core of Yarrow's practice, and it is here that his working method is most distinctive. Rather than photographing from a conventional distance with a long lens, he gets close - often on foot, at ground level, and at real physical risk. He has built a camera housing strong enough to withstand a lion's bite so he could photograph from inside a pride, spent weeks in a hide to photograph polar bears in the Arctic, and worked alongside Kevin Richardson, the "Lion Whisperer," to photograph big cats at proximities most photographers would never attempt. This closeness is the point: Yarrow's wildlife images do not simply document animals, they confer on them the same gravity and individuality usually reserved for human portraiture. His subjects span the plains of East Africa, the ice of Svalbard and Antarctica, and the wilderness of the American West, and his long-running relationship with Land Rover has supported several of these expeditions into genuinely remote terrain.

Cinematic Storytelling

Alongside his wildlife work, Yarrow has built an equally well-known body of staged, cinematic photography - elaborate, often large-scale productions that borrow the visual grammar of the Western, the heist film and classic Hollywood portraiture. These images frequently bring together professional models, trained animals, vintage vehicles and celebrity sitters within a single constructed scene: Cindy Crawford in the Kansas dust, Cara Delevingne on a Harley in the Nevada desert, Diego Maradona reimagined decades after that first World Cup photograph. Where the wildlife work is about proximity to nature, this side of Yarrow's practice is about proximity to myth - the American frontier, celebrity, and the stories a culture tells about itself. It is this combination of raw wildlife photography and highly art-directed cinematic tableaux that has made his catalogue so distinctive, and so widely collected, across both categories.

Fashion, Celebrity and Auction Performance

Yarrow's fashion and celebrity photography has become a significant strand of his practice in its own right, frequently produced in collaboration with the subjects themselves as much as for any commercial brief - Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne and others have returned to work with him more than once. This crossover between fine art, fashion and celebrity culture has helped drive strong secondary-market demand: Yarrow now holds a place among the most commercially successful living photographers at auction, with results including 78 Degrees North selling for roughly $109,743 at Sotheby's London in 2018 - his auction record - alongside strong results for works such as Africa ($106,250, 2019), The Wolf of Main Street ($100,000, 2018) and Mankind (£60,000, 2017). His work has also been exhibited at institutions including the Saatchi Gallery, and has appeared through Christie's and Phillips.

Philanthropy

Conservation and philanthropy sit close to the centre of Yarrow's work rather than at its edges. He sits on the advisory board of Tusk Trust, the African conservation charity, to which David Yarrow Photography has contributed more than $1 million since 2013, and since 2018 his practice has helped raise more than $20 million for conservation and charitable causes worldwide - including a 2021 collaboration with Cindy Crawford that raised $3 million for a children's hospital. He also holds ambassador roles with WildArk, the Kevin Richardson Foundation and Best Buddies, among others. In 2023, David and his family established the David Yarrow Family Foundation, dedicated to funding cancer care research and supporting the creative arts in his native Scotland - a fitting close to a career that began with a Scottish photography prize.

Limited Edition Prints

Every David Yarrow photograph offered through Petra Gut Contemporary is issued as a strictly limited edition, produced to museum-grade archival standards and accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity. Edition sizes are fixed and disclosed at the time of release and do not increase once a body of work is complete, which is central to how Yarrow's market has developed - scarcity, paired with consistent international demand, has supported steady price appreciation across his catalogue over the past decade. Formats range considerably in scale, from intimate desk-sized prints to the room-filling formats for which Yarrow is best known, and framing, materials and edition status are recorded for every work at the time of sale.

Collecting David Yarrow

For collectors new to Yarrow's work, the starting point is usually a straightforward question: wildlife, or cinematic storytelling? The two bodies of work reward different instincts - the wildlife photographs for their intimacy and technical achievement, the staged cinematic pieces for their scale and narrative ambition - and many established collectors ultimately acquire from both. Edition number, print size and subject rarity all affect long-term value, and Petra Gut Contemporary's team is available to advise on all three when helping a client identify the right work, whether the intention is a single statement piece for a home or the beginning of a broader collection. As with any limited edition photography, provenance and documentation matter: every work sold through the gallery comes with full certification and, where relevant, exhibition history.

David Yarrow in Switzerland

Petra Gut Contemporary has represented David Yarrow in Switzerland since 2019, presenting more than a dozen solo exhibitions of his work across its galleries in Zürich and St. Moritz, including a major exhibition at Villa Bührle. Yarrow has also created a dedicated series of work inspired by Switzerland itself, including Hotel Bond, Switzerland, The Eiger, Badrutt's, Cresta, Goats of St. Moritz and The Whiteturf, to name a few. Switzerland's dual identity as a hub for international collectors and a country with its own deep relationship to wilderness and landscape has made it a natural home for Yarrow's work, and the gallery continues to present his photography, alongside virtual exhibitions, art fair appearances at Photo Basel, and private viewings by appointment in both cities.

Petra Gut Contemporary and David Yarrow

As one of David Yarrow's authorised representatives, Petra Gut Contemporary offers direct access to available editions, current pricing and expert guidance from a gallery with a long-standing working relationship with the artist. Enquiries, viewings and acquisitions can be arranged at either the Zürich or St. Moritz gallery, or remotely for international clients.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is David Yarrow?

David Yarrow is a Scottish fine-art photographer, born in Glasgow in 1966, best known for his large-scale wildlife photography and cinematic, staged portraiture. He is one of the world's best-selling contemporary photographers and is represented in more than forty leading galleries internationally, including Petra Gut Contemporary in Zürich and St. Moritz.

Are David Yarrow photographs limited editions?

Yes. Every David Yarrow work is released as a strictly limited edition of a fixed, disclosed size, produced to archival museum standards and sold with a signed certificate of authenticity.

Where can I buy David Yarrow photography in Switzerland?

Petra Gut Contemporary, an authorised David Yarrow gallery with locations in Zürich and St. Moritz, offers original limited edition David Yarrow photography for sale, along with expert advice on collecting his work.

Is Petra Gut Contemporary an authorised gallery?

Yes. Petra Gut Contemporary has represented David Yarrow since 2019 and has presented more than a dozen solo exhibitions of his work, including a major exhibition at Villa Bührle.

How much do David Yarrow photographs cost?

Prices vary by edition size, print size and subject rarity, and have shown steady appreciation over the past decade as editions sell out. Current pricing for available works is provided by Petra Gut Contemporary on request.

Which David Yarrow works are currently available?

Available editions change regularly as pieces are acquired by collectors. The current selection is shown in the collection below; contact Petra Gut Contemporary for the latest availability and pricing.