David Yarrow, Friday Night at the Pioneer | Storytelling

It’s not often that famous supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio ostensibly plays an extra with a wolf getting the lead role, but for this photograph to work, that is exactly what I asked her to do. Of course she is integral to the photograph and played her role of the saloon girl with her usual excellence. She is intelligent, fun and easy to direct. This bar, high in the hills of Montana, is well known to me and the light; depth of field and angles are all familiar territory. I am in my comfort zone, but the wolf is not easy to get right. So many things are totally beyond my control. The wolf’s eyes are vital - they simply have to be sharp and that tests me and my camera to the full. This image works and of course it is not dissimilar to The Wolf of Main Street which precipitated this series all those years ago. That photograph achieved a record price at Sotheby’s New York for $100,000 - up 400% from the original estimate. That is a day I will always remember.