Its probably best not to read this post if you’re hungry. On a recent magazine assignment, I left the French Riviera and headed to Marseille with a food & travel writer to investigate the city’s vibrant, migrant-influenced cuisine. Working as both food and portrait photographer, I had the privilege of photographing – and tasting – some extraordinary dishes that combine South of France flavours with African and Asian influences, and meeting the Marseillais who created them. One of the courses, from a lunch with no less than 23 of them, made the magazine cover. Continue reading…
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How to Sell a Superyacht
How would you like your new boat customised? A glass motorcyle garage on deck? Perhaps a leather-bound staircase leading to the cabins down a wall of backlit onyx? Contrary to what some might expect today, the designer superyacht market is booming and the French Riviera is where its at. Two magazine clients commissioned me this summer to photograph international superyacht trade fairs held annually in the South of France. Photographers were welcomed with open arms at the Cannes event, but at the Monaco Yacht Show, an aversion to press photographers made my assignment challenging. Continue reading…
Lavender Production in Provence
Lavender is often seen as the quintessential symbol of Provence. Every summer, visitors flock to the South of France to see lavender fields, generating a thriving tourist trade around them. However there are still hidden areas of Provence where lavender growers are left entirely in peace. Last summer, I was chosen as photographer to join Stern magazine’s writer making a travel reportage about off-the-beaten-track lavender growing in France. The assignment involved excessive heat, mud, espionage, getting lost, getting high and pushing a van. Life as an assignment photographer is rarely dull. Continue reading…
french riviera bees relocated for survival
Driving around with a car full of bees isn’t my idea of fun, especially navigating hairpin bends in the snowy mountains high above the French Riviera. But one crisp morning this February, beekeeper Amanda Dowd did exactly this (with me, the photographer, following at a safe distance behind) – for a very good reason.
In the bee world, a modern day Reign of Terror is occurring, led by new arrivals to the Cote d’Azur: Asian hornets. Continue reading…
On the trail of wolves in the French Alps
I’m aware that jellyfish can be a hazard on the beaches of the French Riviera, and have even heard of shark sightings between Nice and Cannes. Until recently though, I had no idea that wolves are becoming a big problem in the South of France. Intrepid photographer that I am, I hiked far up into the Alps to meet Bernard, a shepherd who spends his summers deep in the Mercantour National Park and lost over 100 of his sheep to wolves last year alone. Continue reading…
All the fun of the (trade) fair in Cannes
Cannes may be grabbing the headlines this month, as it rolls out its red carpet for the stars, but the film festival is only one of many annual international events held in town. Earlier this spring, I got the measure of MIPIM.
MIPIM is the trade show for the property sector, and no place for humble estate agents. Inside giant exhibition stands, companies, cities and entire countries amaze delegates with their intricately-crafted scale models of redevelopments. On yachts and sunny terraces, architects, planners and investors do big business, and enjoy the pleasures of the South of France. I was hired as both editorial photographer for Monocle and corporate photographer for a banking client: full MIPIM immersion….
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