Johnny Pigozzi’s endless pool party

Photographer and art collector Johnny Pigozzi keeps a little waterproof notepad by the edge of his swimming pool, because he says he has his best ideas here. There’s certainly no lack of inspiration nearby. The kidney-bean shaped pool, which was built in 1953 on the grounds of Pigozzi’s family home, Villa Dorane, sits on perhaps one of the most beautiful outcrops on the Côte d’Azur, near Cap Antibes. From May to September, it is populated by some of the most fascinating and colourful people on the planet – a rolling carnival of actors, musicians, moguls, writers, producers, financiers, models, directors, photographers and painters. They come as friends and friends-of-friends, and the only price of entry, as Bono writes in his intro to Pigozzi’s book on the subject, Pool Party, is to be “vulnerable to Johnny’s hair-trigger lens”.