David Yarrow. Nella Natura Selvaggia

Spazio Ersel will host in Turin from From October 27th to November 24th, 2017 the exhibition "Nella Natura Selvaggia", with photographs by the most important artist on an international level of Fine Art photography: the Scottish photographer David Yarrow.
"Nella Natura Selvaggia" is the first exhibition in Italy of Yarrow's Fine Art photographs of wildlife and animals. The show is realized in collaboration with Valerio Tazzetti from Photo&Contemporary and Paola Colombari, who represents the artist in Italy.
David Yarrow, among the most original of contemporary photographers and a UK Ambassador for Nikon, is supported by Prince William's Tusk Foundation. He participated in the gala auction for Leonardo di Caprio's Foundation, dedicated to protecting and safeguarding the Planet through the adoption and the diffusion of eco-friendly measures. Yarrow's photographs are present in numerous museums, such as the Perot Museum of Dallas, the New Museum of Natural History in Missouri and the Bührle Museum in Zurich. His work is also present in many prestigious galleries in the United States and Europe. Recently his work set an important record at a Sotheby's auction. Yarrow investigates in unexpected and surprising ways the "Animal Kingdom", transmitting the obscure sensation of freedom beyond our human perception. The transposition of his large-scale black and white images display the power, beauty and strength of tigers, lions, zebras, elephants, and rhinoceros with a highly personal technique in approaching these animals in their spontaneity, without startling them, and therefore immortalizing them with his lens in all of their wild essence. His subjects are often photographed frontally in order to interact on a deeper level with the beauty of their gaze. His animals become surreal and dreamlike presences, suspended forever in time. The exhibition "Nella Natura Selvaggia" is composed of fifteen extraordinary photographs (in small, standard and large formats) of thrilling shots from Yarrow's last journeys in Nigeria, Kenya, Yellowstone, Congo and finally from his experience in North Korea.
Yet, Yarrow's focus is not limited only to wild fauna. His photographic investigations also include the immortalization of ghost towns, tribes or "tribal" communities, such as Green Bay or Dortmund, as well as remarkable men such as Arnold Palmer at Augusta. The image for Yarrow is regardless a poetic, unrepeatable moment which transcends all levels and requires dedicated time for preparation, creative courage, and technical fluidity.
Through his photographs he also narrates the life of Man and of communities distant from the Western world, suspended in time, such as in the latest stunning photographs of Makoko, known as the "black Venice" or the "Venice of Africa." Makoko is a shanty town located in the outskirts of Lagos in Nigeria, a fisherman's village inhabited since the 18th century by one hundred thousand people in wooden stilt houses interconnected by canals navigated in canoes by the residents. David Yarrow immersed himself in this reality and created a natural set, submerging himself in the water and photographing from extreme angles the traditions and faces of Togo and Benin.
In February of 2017, he photographed for the first time his impressions of the land of Zaire, previously called the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Belgium's oppressive and infamous heritage - the French language, Belgian architecture and a slight note of French cuisine - still remains. Yet this is not a colonial 'Happy Valley'. The DRC was a violent 'Valley of Death'." As such David Yarrow feels that the poor population of 67 million people still suffers the influence of colonialism. In Congo, the photographer discovered the magnificent chimpanzees. "To impose onself in the habitat of the Silverbacks' rainforest, over 10.000 feet, requires respect and at times a somewhat abrupt approach. For these portraits I wanted to work with a short and technically practical lens. This means to get as close as possible without colliding with the rage of the Silverback or of ranger that is always around the corner. "
This experience gave rise to the extraordinary portraits of the series "Silverbacks", "Congo", and “All Our Yesterdays,” in which faces appear as antique paintings not of primates but of the ancestors of our roots, elegant and intense in black and white. An archaic color leads us back to our cosmic nature.
David Yarrow can be defined as the artist of light. Through his technique and the power of his images he allows us to feel the beauty of these animals, so close that it almost feels like we can caress them.
In occasion of the exhibition “Nella Natura Selvaggia,” David Yarrow will hold a lecture including a video presentation which illustrates his approach to wild fauna and his adventurous travels in extreme continents where nature is still uncontaminated. The exhibition is accompanied by the beautiful book “Nella Natura Selvaggia,” edited by Rizzoli Libri. 

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