A Room with a View

"If locations had the right to be called “heaven on earth,” then the Amalfi Coast would fancy its chances of owning it and not being mocked. There are not many places I know that can get away with that. The timeless beauty and dramatic location of communities such as Atrani are well known; the dramatic peninsula attracts five million visitors a year despite car journeys that are not for the faint-hearted. This is no secret garden.

Making this photograph of the generational supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio in Atrani needed some thought. It was a good premise, with some world-class constituents, but we could not afford to be creatively lame.

We knew a modest B&B with one room whose balcony had the right view of Atrani. But my sense was that it needed an extra variable to give that emphatic sense of place. My leaning was to construct a lemon grove—as the fruit is symbolic of the region. In the Bay of Naples, lemons are Jurassic; almost as if they have evolved differently from everywhere else and when they come together on a grove, it offers a visual feast.

This was not an easy set and the people who made it happen were the locals of Atrani: the Mayor; the Chief of Police; the landlord and the lemon gardener. It was a true team effort. There is such a sense of community here and that is what makes the Amalfi Coast truly special. The hilltop scenery, the azure sea, the food and the wine all transcend at some level, but it’s the people living and working behind Alessandra in this photograph who make the location so special.

It is a “Room with a view”—a view of a proper community."

- David Yarrow