George Michael, ‘St. Tropez, No.I’

© Brian Aris
St. Tropez, France. c.1990s
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity

‘A villa in the South of France, set amid the pine trees of Provence and overlooking the bay of St. Tropez, was the setting for some of the most relaxed images I have taken of George. Day spent photographing him by the pool, on the beach, playing tennis or simply sitting and reading quietly in the shade of the pines made for some very chilled pictures that reflected a more private side of his life, when he could get away from it all for a while and briefly find refuge far away from the intense world of pop music superstardom and all the pressures that come with it for artists like George. He seemed to be at his happiest in those off-duty moments, and I was both privileged and fortunate enough professionally to be allowed to share some of that important downtime with him and to be able to take shots that I like to think might have captured for posterity something of the private man behind the public image.’ Brian Aris

Brian Aris began his photographic career as a photojournalist, working for a London agency. A series of frontline assignments took him around the world covering various humanitarian crises from Northern Ireland and Lebanon to Palestine, Africa and Vietnam. He then decided on a complete change of direction and opened a studio in London where he started photographing fashion and glamour models for newspapers and magazines. Next he turned away from the model world to concentrate on the music industry that was exploding in Britain and gradually broadened his studio work to include pop and rock stars. 

Brian Aris has covered every aspect of the music scene from punk rock, glam’ rock and straight rock ‘n’ roll to the emergence of the boy bands and then the girl power. His photography has been on show at The National Portrait Gallery in London, the prestigious Recontres D’Arles exhibition in France, and at the Royal Circle of Art in Barcelona. His archive represents one of the largest individual collections in the United Kingdom.

National Portrait Gallery
The Times
Harpers Bazaar
Wall Street International Magazine
E.S.
Telegraph
Volta Cafe
King’s Road Rock
It’s Nice That
Culture24
Independent

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