BAD ASSES
KANAAN DESERT, NAMIBIA - 2024
This photograph has been in my head for many years. We have taken our fair share of bad ass pictures of girls in cars in America, but I always wanted to extend my reach to Africa and introduce a Mad Max type narrative. Rather than working in the mountains with snow, as we often do, it was time to work in the desert with sand.
I knew my girl for the shot - Cara Delevingne - and I knew that the hugely respected Naankuse Sanctuary in Namibia often work their cheetahs with film crews, and then I also knew the Kanaan desert well. But I needed a central prop to hold the whole idea together. I needed something of substance.
I had long deliberated over building a bar marooned in the middle of the desert. Not just a two-dimensional facade of a bar, but an actual functioning bar, with lights, cooling machines and entertainment.
I confess that there was quite a bit of talking to myself about the risk reward ratio and I became all to mindful of Walt Disney’s famous advice of “stop talking and start doing”. I like to have creative courage and be bold.
So, I threw my fears away and we built our bar in the desert. It is so damn good that we are going to keep it there for tourists to visit and perhaps have a cold Namibian lager. It was not a small building job and six lorries full of wood and corrugated iron made the eight-hour trip south from Windhoek. I have never worked with a more willing bunch of people in my life than the Namibian production team and they had earned the right to be very proud of The Desert Inn.
In a tableau photograph like this, I want to be greedy and broaden the story: the barman and the bushman on the far right are the little details that help. Cara looks sensational and, of course, that split second pose from the cheetah makes the photograph what it is. It is a bad ass shot for sure and it is also a bad ass bar.