David Gandy lands a starring role in an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired fine photography project
Shot in Devon, England, by photographer David Yarrow, an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired fine art photography project stars male model David Gandy as one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men. The prompt for the project came from the movies, and in this case it was Hitchcock’s 1963 masterclass in slow burn terror – The Birds. The film, which turned seagulls into the most terrifying villains in horror history, was shot on location in Bodega Bay, 70 miles north of San Francisco. The landscape of South Devon, as it turned out, is not too dissimilar.
Yarrow also planned to re-create a scene from another iconic Hitchcock movie – the critically-acclaimed North by North West. The rollercoaster tale of mistaken identity, with an assured Cary Grant as the lead, is still a cinematic pleasure. Yarrow revealed he had “always been drawn to the single frame of Grant being chased by the crop duster plane. It grabs the attention and holds it as well as any still from any movie. My plan was unapologetically to look to replicate the shot. I had not seen this attempted elsewhere and that fuelled my desire.” But that in itself threw up another challenge. “Stepping into the shoes of Cary Grant is an onerous responsibility and we needed the very best,” Yarrow explains, “so I called on David Gandy – one of the most celebrated male models of our time. I knew that David would not only relish the opportunity, but also give me exactly the look the image needed.” So watch the film, and see what you think – does Gandy pass muster as Grant?
