Shot Before Dawn
The Players, The Parties
Nowhere Man
David Yarrow has taken his camera around the world and published the results in his book Nowhere. Here is a portfolio of his best shots
David Yarrow, founder of Clareville Capital, is the hedge fund equivalent of a gutsy long-distance, cross-country runner. The straight-talking Scot — his father ran the Yarrow shipyard in Glasgow for over 30 years as well as becoming chairman of Clydesdale Bank — has now turned his tenacity to shooting the wonders of the world. He has published the best of his photographs in Nowhere, whose proceeds go to three charities (Evelina Children’s Hospital, CLIC and Mencap). Nowhere was shortlisted for the Spear’s Coffee-Table Book of the Year.
He denies lofty ambitions with his book: ‘It was not conceived as another essay on climatic change or as a portrayal of the fragility of the planet. Nor is it intended to compete with the multitude of landscape photography books that adorn coffee tables in urban homes. This quite simply was never a commercial project. Rather it is a personal compilation of images collected during several years of travel through some of the world’s more remote and desolate locations.’
He is also clear about how lucky he has been: ‘The book is the product of many deliberately planned trips to nowhere. The sense of privilege of arriving in many of these places was in many cases born out of the comfort of knowing that I would also be leaving. There is little reality in being a parachute photojournalist and this project has been approached with a great sense of humility.’
David compares finance to photography, finding more similarity than you might expect: ‘In my mind, photography is no more about cameras than investing is about BlackBerrys or Bloomberg screens. They are both about interpretation and observation. There is not perhaps the gulf between the two trades that ostensibly there would appear to be. The biggest difference is that in investment, mistakes can never be hidden, while no one needs to see the poor photographs — of which, over the last few years, I have taken a great many.’
The book has dual purposes: ‘If it reminds a mere few of the wonder of the earth and at the same time raises some money for children’s charities, then I will be a happy man.’ He worries that rapid globalisation will ‘mean that much of what is now nowhere will soon become somewhere. There will be fewer virgin beaches, unexplored ice formations and untouched deserts.’ David’s aim is to show our current nowheres.
All pictures (c) David Yarrow
Nowhere is available at Cheeky Boo in the Chelsea Farmers’ Market or by contacting louise.delaney@clarevillecapital.com
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