St Moritz, Switzerland – 2023

Digital Pigment Print on Archival
315gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta Paper
Frame included
Hand signed and numbered on the front by the artist
Includes a Certificate of Authenticity

Local builder, Johannes Badrutt, was the founding father of St Moritz as we
know it now and is credited with being the inventor of vast luxury Alpine hotels.
Badrutt established a new level of opulence when he opened the Engadiner
Kulm in the 1860s and meanwhile his son, Caspar, bought an existing hotel –
The Beau Rivage – in 1884 and officially enlarged it into the Badrutt’s Palace
Hotel in 1896.
With its vast drawing rooms, elaborate furnishing and Neo Gothic architecture,
Badrutt’s soon became an institution. Its clientele was not just the Swiss, but
the British upper classes who were drawn to the strong winter suns of St Moritz
and all sorts of thrill chasing events on the ice. By the turn of the century, the
town was Europe’s winter El Dorado and Badrutt’s was the central base camp.
Not much has changed in the last 120 years and the hotel’s magical allure has
made it world famous. Every day, scores of tourists stop outside the grand
entrance to take photographs and there is no doubt that it is a destination in
itself.
I wanted to photograph the grand entrance in 1960s period styling as a nod to
the time that Gunter Sachs and Brigitte Bardot were holding court and helping
make St Moritz the most glamorous winter resort on earth.
I hope others think this photograph has a sense of place and a sense of time.

What an era it must have been, if only the elaborately decorated walls of
Badrutt’s could talk, they would no doubt tell tales of mischief and glamour, but
most of all they would speak of the one constant – the joy of life.

Digital Pigment Print on Archival
315gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta Paper
Frame included
Hand signed and numbered on the front by the artist
Includes a Certificate of Authenticity