{"title":"St. Tropez","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"david-yarrow-brigitte","title":"Brigitte","description":"Brigitte\u003cbr\u003e St Tropez, France – 2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I knew that to try and celebrate Brigitte Bardot’s St Tropez with a series of photographs would be to travel on a road littered with potholes. Whilst the idyllic charm of this most famous of seaside towns has a sense of permanency that touches only a very few communities, we would be trying to tell a story of an iconic woman without her being there. Parody or not, that is a dangerous game for a visual artist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Locations were always going to be a central building block to this project and there were some important decisions to be made in a town that can be very busy. Early on we homed in on one area - La Ponche. It’s such an emblematic part of St Tropez: it was here that Roger Vadim rolled his cameras in “And God Created Woman” in 1958, the movie that made Bardot - his then wife - a world-wide sensation. With its narrow, cobbled streets and wider aesthetic splendour, La Ponche is the spiritual heart of St Tropez.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The harbour has several other attributes: it hasn’t changed much since 1958, it isn’t crowded with tourists at 6.45 am and furthermore, it is visually elevated in the first half hour when the sun rises from the east. It is also a practical location for an early morning shoot. La Ponche Hotel, where Bardot stayed during the making of the movie, is still very much in operation and became our own Hq for the shoot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gunter Sachs started romancing Brigitte Bardot in the mid 60s, she was often seen on his Riva Aquarama - Dracula. It is a boat that embodies the glamour and style of 1960s St Tropez and luckily through a long friendship with Gunter’s son Rolf, we were able to borrow Dracula for the shoot. That was a big break.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The hardest part of the jigsaw, however, was finding a balance between the model’s necessary anonymity and the sense that she could pass as Brigitte herself. We have worked with Frida Aasen before and felt confident that she could play the role prescribed. Frida had done her homework and understood her head angles and then it was simply hoping we would get one glimpse when it all aligned. She had to look the part.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I smile when I look at this photograph, in part because I sense some reward from the homework, the planning and then the spontaneity on the day. It all happened very quickly and long before most people in St Tropez were awake.","brand":"David Yarrow","offers":[{"title":"94 x 191 cm (image size) | 132 x 229 cm (framed size)","offer_id":43995256946775,"sku":"DY-PH-Brigitte-94 x 191 cm (image size) | 132 x 229 cm (framed size)-AR-SI-N\/A","price":37800.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"130 x 262 cm (image size) | 168 x 300 cm (framed size)","offer_id":43995256979543,"sku":"DY-PH-Brigitte-130 x 262 cm (image size) | 168 x 300 cm (framed size)-AR-SI-N\/A","price":45360.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0274\/0553\/files\/yarrow_david_441_brigitte_132x229_20copy.jpg?v=1782836202"},{"product_id":"david-yarrow-le-club-55","title":"Le Club 55","description":"Le Club 55\u003cbr\u003e St Tropez, France – 2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I have huge admiration for Patrice de Colmont - the owner of the legendary Le Club 55 on Pampelonne beach near St Tropez. My fondness for him is not a self-serving emotion derived from being allowed to shoot at this club, nor is it simply because he continues to work as hard as he does to be charming and efficient to a daily clientele that in peak summer can exceed 800 covers. It is more because Le Club 55 has retained a unique vibe for decades. That is some trick for a famous restaurant and one achieved by so few. The credit for that must go to him and his daughter Camille.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Patrice has a cool insouciance that trickles down to his clientele and in so doing pays homage to the club’s roots. In 1955 Roger Vadim and his film crew who were shooting the love scenes for “And God Created Woman” mistook the driftwood furniture that Patrice’s father had laid up on his beach for a public restaurant. And so it was that Le Club 55 was born and the film’s lead - Brigitte Bardot - soon to be the world’s most famous woman - found her base camp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There is, of course, an indulgence in life at Le Club 55, but it is accompanied by a chilled nonchalance that cannot be bottled. So many destination venues are ultimately ruined by the clientele that want to be seen there: it is the money that eventually wins the day, but here in Pampelonne, that effortless and visceral authenticity remains sacrosanct.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Here in the most idyllic part of the French Riviera, is a club that will always be sovereign and I sense that the behaviour is self-policed. In some ways it reminds me of Augusta, Georgia: the clientele may be very different, but the guiding principle is a deference to the past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I wanted the picture to tell a story of people protecting their story, their beach and their club.","brand":"David Yarrow","offers":[{"title":"94 x 157 cm (image size) | 132 x 196 cm (framed size)","offer_id":43995274870871,"sku":"DY-PH-Le Club 55-94 x 157 cm (image size) | 132 x 196 cm (framed size)-AR-SI-N\/A","price":32400.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"142 x 239 cm (image size) | 180 x 277 cm (framed size)","offer_id":43995274903639,"sku":"DY-PH-Le Club 55-142 x 239 cm (image size) | 180 x 277 cm (framed size)-AR-SI-N\/A","price":39960.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0274\/0553\/files\/yarrow_david_440_le_club_55_132x183_4bf8071e-36cc-4c05-a55c-c230ac0f26b8.jpg?v=1782836777"}],"url":"https:\/\/petragut.com\/collections\/st-tropez-1.oembed","provider":"Petra Gut Contemporary AG","version":"1.0","type":"link"}