Lance Avery Morgan
From European Roots To Cowboy Dreams, Meet The Photographer Who Makes Mythology. His Legion Of Texas Fans Are But A Few Of His Global Collectors
David Yarrow doesn’t just take photographs; he stages worlds. A Scotsman by birth but a cowboy by artistic instinct, Yarrow has built a global reputation for capturing the raw, romantic, and sometimes dangerous poetry of the American West. His new book from Rizzoli USA, David Yarrow: The Collection, is a tour de force of his career so far. Plus, the foreward was written by his close pal, Robert Redford. Here, our Lance Avery Morgan catches up with renowned photographer David Yarrow to uncover the inspirations and adventures that shape his world behind the camera…
It’s a thinking person’s look at modern photography with no-holds-barred doses of glam on every page. Think desert horizons, weathered ranch hands, wild stallions, and whiskey-soaked saloons; all rendered with the cinematic glory of a John Ford western and the elegance of a Slim Aarons-inspired tableau.
Except where Aarons chronicled leisure, luxury, and the golden glow of society’s sun-drenched elite, Yarrow chases grit, mythology, and the unapologetic drama of frontier life.
So, is David Yarrow the Western Slim Aarons? Absolutely, but with a twist.
Where Aarons was invited into the poolside playgrounds of Palm Beach and St. Tropez, Yarrow carves his own stage, populating it with outlaws, starlets, Native traditions, and the iconography of a land that has long fascinated dreamers. Many observers of Yarrow’s works are mesmerized by how striking the subject’s compositional elements are.
He elevates his page-turning Americana into modern mythology, where dust and snow become bits of glamour sprinkled about, and a horse rearing at dawn can feel every bit as chic as yachting in St. Tropez.
Yarrow’s inventiveness is not just in documenting the West in new ways; it’s in mythmaking, reframing its lore for the contemporary eye while keeping its spirit untamed. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
