St Tropez

Brigitte Bardot enjoyed using her Albatross speedboat in St Tropez and we sensed that if we could source a vintage one, it would be a useful prop for this parody; it played emphatically to the era and the location. We did find one, but it had to come all the way from Goodwood in the UK.

The buildings in La Ponche have a weathered timelessness that I knew would serve us well and then I just needed a composition to showcase a sense
of place and a sense of a very specific woman. Nadine Leopold has a breezy nonchalance that made her ideal for the role and we both knew the head angles could offer some anonymity. I have worked with Nadine before and she is a delight. It is not easy to make someone look like someone else and to do it in a way that is nether cheap nor gratuitous. My leaning was to photograph her out of the boat as that would give us the most scope to build a wider narrative and even include some determined paparazzi on the shore.

The aluminium structure of the boat’s hull threw off some useful reflections when facing the rising sun and as this detail started to show itself, I adapted my plans and Nadine’s position. It never pays to be too prescriptive.

The goal was to take a picture with an unambiguous sense of place and sense of a specific era. This is St Tropez - the most idyllic and storied resort in the world and the place that Bardot called home.