How A Photographer Turned Crisis Into A Global Brand

0:00You always want to be a creative, so the journey's got lots to do and you should get better. Old age or middle age or whatever doesn't have many redeeming features, but one good thing is you should become a better photographer because I think you become more emotionally intelligent. Don't make the same mistake twice. It should be an aggregation of all the mistakes you have made. Today's bite-sized episode features world-renowned photographer David Yarrow, a man who's risked everything for the shot. I'm a great believer that photographs without a narrative can be a little bit of a vacuum. People want to tell stories.

0:33Welcome to this special bite-sized episode of Screw It Just Do It from our back catalogue of over 550 past episodes. How did you make that leap then from photographing Diego Maradona 33 years ago to then photographing dangerous wild animals and supermodels? You know, I don't think what's in front of the camera should bend back and affect the cameraman's ability to photograph it. Someone once said to me, which is a little bit silly, David, you can't shoot me, you shoot animals. So the idea that if I photographed a zebra on Monday, that if I was asked to photograph a person on Tuesday, I'd struggle because I'm a zebra photographer, is a little bit silly.

1:29I'm subject agnostic, but the subject's got to interest me. There's a very good quote that someone once said, if you want to be a better photographer, put better things in front of your camera. And that's so true. I mean, it sounds simplistic, but it's true. If the pictures are not good enough, maybe you could do some better things in front of the camera to photograph. And iconic big animals, dangerous animals, animals that have been disrespected, are fairly powerful things to put in front of a camera, particularly if you're close, as is Cindy Crawford. Indeed, as we are looking right up at her and the wolf there, absolutely.

2:10Absolutely. And do you, is it one of these things that it's almost like trying to pick one of your favorite children? Like you don't, you don't have a favorite that you've taken over the years or are there those iconic ones that you see the tipping points at Mankind or something? Yeah, I mean Mankind's a big image and the Wolf on the Bar in Montana that we call the Wolf of Main Street. Yeah. and Leo's to Cabra's gotta go to Coffee with that which is nice because it's just up to the Wolf of Wall Street and I think the big picture I've taken this in the show this week called Squad which has got the two biggest elephants in the world it's the first picture that my team have turned around to me and said I don't think demand for this picture is going to be influenced by the price and we We shot it five weeks ago, and the pictures almost sold out.

3:10So manifestly, we did price it wrong. And one of the tough things for me is to work out. I'm riddled with my own insecurity, and I'm very tough on myself. But sometimes, when you take a big picture, you photograph. enough, you've got other balls to turn around and say, we're going to try and we'll put this flag up and see if it flies. What you never want to do is misjudge on the upside and then bring it down because that's embarrassing. So you tend to be conservative and move forward. But at the end of that picture, we started, I think, at 50 ,000 pounds for one and they've all gone. And so therefore, that was the wrong price.

3:54Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And book came out about a month ago. And previous book, 2017, that sold out a bunch of print runs as well. Yeah. And I hear this book, which is told by Amazon, has got the biggest pre-order for a hardback right now in the market list, which is just encouraging. I think I did Piers Morgan's show on Monday, and I think that might have helped. Yeah. That's always going to help, isn't it? Absolutely. and especially you've got that good run-up to christmas i guess yeah well yep so we we hope to um sell an awful lot of them and all the royalties go back into conservation which is and and that's hence tom's involvement got you okay um and and last question for is what what point um when you went all in on photography at what point in that journey or how long into that journey did you think yeah this is the right decision i'm i'm going to realize all of the dreams the ambitions that i that i had or you're not there yet i i'm i i you always want to be a creative so the journeys um we're mid-journey uh we've got lots to do and um you should get better there's no old age or middle age or whatever doesn't have many redeeming features but one good thing is you should become a better photographer because you i think you become more emotionally intelligent and also if you don't make the same mistake twice which of course you do um it should be an aggregation of all the mistakes you have made um so i should get better i think i'm getting better um and we've got capital now to throw out projects which which is very handy so we don't get worried about the cost of a project within reason.

5:50I think there was a moment in Amsterdam probably three years ago where in my old book, and I said I would be book signing for the weekend in Amsterdam. And there was a queue half a mile long in Amsterdam. And I thought, wow, people were queuing, waiting. there's two hours there's two hours to wait and people waited and that me i was i was um very flattered of course but that was that was the moment i thought we've got a brand yeah but there's there's been many bumps along the way i remember our third most important city in the world is dallas and i always fancied that dallas would be a good market for us it's a lot of wall space, a lot of money there, and a love of the big outdoors.

6:48But when I first arrived in Dallas, no one understandably knew who the hell I was. And the final event we had in Dallas, three people turned up, one of whom was my PR girl. And so I think there was one guest. and we were$100 ,000 down in Dallas in costs before we made our first big sale. So there's a J curve in terms of going south cash flow wise, which you have in every city. It's very rare that you start in a fresh city and you make money straight away. The nice position is now we've got a lot of cities where they're fine. So it's like the plate spinner, you know. You can't have too many that are wobbling.

7:37And to begin with, we nearly didn't make it because our cash was going out and sales weren't strong enough. But now our sales are strong and provided the content is there, we should be fine. So for me, David's journey proves that fortune follows obsession. What do I mean by that? about creating relentlessly and about not chasing trends, but defining them and about making art that ultimately matters. Follow Scourages, do it for more raw founder stories.