David Gandy features in this Alfred Hitchcock inspired fine art photography shoot in Devon, England with David Yarrow and team.
The prompt for our project in Devon came - as it so often does - from the movies. In this case it was Alfred 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 is not dissimilar to South Devon and both communities rely heavily on tourism and the fishing industry.
The movie was also based on Daphne du Maurier's novella "The Birds", which was first published in her 1952 short story collection The Apple Tree. The protagonist of the novella is a farm hand living in Cornwall in the South West of England - close to our home. After watching the film again, and then learning this piece of trivia, I knew we had to try and recreate it. After all, there is no shortage of big and aggressive seagulls here.
There is a famous scene in “The Birds”, when Hedren - alone in a tiny boat - is first attacked by a seagull. That was the moment I wanted to recreate. The special effects in the movie are now somewhat mocked, but for 1963, he did one hell of a job in creating terror. For our recreation, I wanted as expansive and layered a narrative as possible. There is a lighthouse 18 miles out to sea from our home called Eddystone.
It was first built in 1698, over 70 years before people first settled in San Francisco and I rather liked that. Over and above that, it offered a special backdrop if it were to come off. It was a long shot - the English Channel is not friendly and getting a tiny wooden boat out there would be challenging, even before dropping our very own Tippi Hedren into it.
At about 6.10 pm on a glorious mid-June evening it all came off. The benign weather made the feared English Channel a mill pond, the birds came and Bella Di Lorenzo, in her tiny rowing boat, was a fearless superstar.
We were emboldened by the success of this first project and our attention moved immediately to a Hitchcock movie that many critics regard as iconic - ‘North by North West’. The rollercoaster tale of mistaken identity, with an assured Cary Grant as the lead, is still a cinematic pleasure. I have 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. Stepping into the shoes of Cary Grant is an onerous responsibility and we needed the very best, 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.
Replicating the crop duster plane was harder, because of flying regulations in the UK and the rules of basic personal safety. We explored a range of possibilities and rightly involved David in the process, after all, he was going to be far more at risk than me. The wind was a key factor and the shoot was postponed twice as it was simply too strong - as is often the case on the Devon coast.
The final shot, taken on the cliffs above the English Channel, could never tell a behind the scenes story - so we have made a small film just to give proof that this did actually happen. This can be found on our website under “Hitchcock”.
There are so many people to thank for making this happen, especially Nick Johnston, who allowed us to film on his estate. But the biggest credit goes to David - who really does give Cary Grant a run for his money.
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