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.