Travel back in time to Los Angeles, 1988. Maurizio Zanella, the founder of Italian wine estate Ca’ del Bosco, is having dinner at Spago on Sunset Boulevard when Barbara Lazaroff, girlfriend of the chef Wolfgang Puck, who is working front of house, suggests he joins another solitary male diner. The immaculately presented but rather reserved gentleman happens to be photographer Helmut Newton. Zanella is already a great admirer of Newton’s work and senses that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. By the time they reach coffee, the Ca’ del Bosco photography project has been conceived.
The idea was to capture a variety of perspectives on the estate in Franciacorta and, although neither diner knew it at the time, it would eventually lead to the publication of 11 Fotografi 1 Vino in 2004. The astonishing photographs in Newton’s signature eye-catching style have recently been reacquired by Ca’ del Bosco.
‘Fifi, Mr Newton’s Parisian assistant, caused quite a stir among the locals. They wondered what was going on,’ says Zanella. For 11 days, the models galivanted around the rural estate in little more than pearls and wellingtons, acting out Newton’s provocative narrative. ‘The hair and makeup lady was very busy but the wardrobe assistant had a relatively easy ride of it,’ he adds. Cast as estate workers, they were captured driving tractors and eating lunch en plein air, as well as caged in the cellars and, in an instance of pure provocation, pouring glasses of sparkling wine over their breasts while staring straight back at the camera.
We did not show the next photographer what had been shot before. There was no brief.
‘Of course, we were thrilled with the results,’ says Zanella. ‘Through this, I became friends with Helmut Newton’s agent Davide Manfredi.’ With Manfredi, the project had the support of a major insider from the world of commercial photography and it grew in scale. ‘There was no plan, it was like a chain, we would always ask the last photographer “who shall we have next?” We did not show the next photographer what had been shot before. There was no brief.’
Perhaps because of this organic process, 11 Fotografi 1 Vino is the most incredible cache of imagery, now resembling a who’s who of photography in the 1990s. Alongside Newton, photographers include Franco Fontana, George Gerster, Ralph Gibson, Eikoh Hosoe, Mimmo Jodice, William Klein, Don McCullin, Ferdinando Scianna and Alice Springs. ‘We included Flavio Bonetti as the local and relatively unknown junior at the time. This elevated him and he ended up becoming really successful too,’ says Zanella.
Scroll down for a selection of images taken from 11 Fotografi 1 Vino
11 Fotografi 1 Vino is available from Skira.
