It’s not every day an artist almost gets arrested by the USA Federal Police for trying to snap a few photographs, but then again Shane Yeend isn’t just any ordinary artist.
Shane is one of South Australia’s biggest success stories, after leaving school at 15 he started his own cinematography company and is now the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation.
A true entrepreneur, Shane has done everything from shooting film clips for Madonna to creating board games and his next project is photography.
Shane is currently showing an exhibition as part of SALA Festival at Chapel Hill Winery, which consists of a series of photographs depicting the iconic Hollywood sign.
Shane, who is based in LA, wanted a photograph to remember the city by when he came back to Adelaide.
“We spent one night going up and down Sunset Boulevard producing something that looked like the opening of Entourage,” Shane says.
"I used to drive down Sunset Boulevard from our office and I used to see this sign and used to see these beautiful sunsets and I thought, I’ve got to take a picture that reminds me of this place when I move back home to Adelaide.”
After failing to find a good photo of the Hollywood sign Shane and a friend decided to take matters into their own hands by trekking up the hill to the Hollywood sign at 4:30 in the morning.
“We got closer and closer to the sign until we tripped the emergency alarms and were told by the Federal Police that we should remove ourselves, the helicopters had been dispatched."
“But I knew it would take them x amount of time to get there, so we kept taking more pictures."
Shane's background in cinematography certainly came in handy, of the 15 photographs he took, eight are on display at Chapel Hill alongside two other artists.
Peter Thurmer and Louise Vadasz are also exhibiting at Chapel Hill and have both produced art portraying the local area, which makes a good contrast to Shane's work.
The photographs are striking and imposing and feel as if they should be gracing the walls of Hollywood's most rich and famous, and it’s highly likely they will be if Shane has anything to do with it.
The most popular of Shanes photographs has to be the aptly titled ‘City of Broken Dreams'.
“If you look at the Screen Actors Guild, there’s only 5% of people that are registered in the Screen Actors Guild who earn over $5,000 a year."
“The whole place (Los Angeles) is full of people who come there to try and make it, and never make it.”
"I just thought, this place is just a city of broken dreams."
It seems appropriate that Shane has come back to Adelaide, the city where it all began, to premiere his work for our very own SALA Festival.
Mark Allgrove, CEO of Chapel Hill Winery says that with over 4,000 artists and 540 locations, SALA is a great South Australian initiative
“The vision was to become a blend of local produce, local talent and a love of art and once again that’s what we try and embody here at Chapel Hill,” says Mark.
"In the same genre of pursuing your dreams are the photos that Shanes taken.”
The exhibition will be on at Chapel Hill Winery until September 18 2011.
Artists
Shane Yeend – H-O-L-LY-W-O-O-D
Peter Thurmer – Edge of the Ocean
Lousie Vadasz – Landscapes
To find out more about SALA go to salafestival.com
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