David Yarrow

Wild Encounters

David Yarrow
Wild Encounters

As part of the Photobiennale 2018 the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents the ‘Wild Encounters’ exhibition by world-renowned British photographer David Yarrow.

Born in Glasgow in 1966, David Yarrow was interested in photography from childhood and at the age of 20 became a sports photographer at the legendary Times newspaper in London. One of the young photographer’s firsts shots was of Argentinian striker Diego Maradona during the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, and for this he received a Photographer of the Year award.

For many years David Yarrow’s real passion has been wildlife photography. He travels to the most remote and inaccessible areas of our planet, creating astonishing black and white images of animals on the verge of extinction as a result of thoughtless human activity.

David Yarrow worked on the ‘Wild Encounters’ project for five years. To attain the maximum effect Yarrow photographed animals at dangerously close range. Each shot demanded careful preparation. Sometimes the photographer had to ‘sit in ambush’ for many hours as he waited for the right moment, and there were times when animals destroyed his equipment during a shoot.

‘When I was photographing a polar bear in Alaska I had to go closer than anybody had ever gone before... I was shaking so much I thought I’d never get the shot,’ recalls the photographer.

In 2016 the Rizzoli publishers in New York issued David Yarrow’s book ‘Wild Encounters’, with a foreword written by Prince William. The book received the Art Book 2017 award, and Yarrow donated his fee to the Tusk Trust charity, which works for the conservation of endangered species of African animals.