Nellie, 2023, from the series Mount Nelson © Rosie Marks
The luxury brand is working with image-makers to create a new approach to travel photography that conveys subjective experiences over commercial work
“It happened quite organically, but our core DNA is hospitality and incredible luxury travel experiences across the world in 20 countries,” says Arnaud Champenois, global head of brand, marketing and communications for Belmond. “We are famous for our legendary hotels and trains, so we want to perpetuate the legendary art of travel, and even shape the future of travel. And so contemporary photography is a fantastic medium for us.”
We are discussing Belmond’s recent work with image-makers, in particular its freewheeling photography commissions. The group started its Belmond Legends project back in 2022, when it invited photographers Francois Halard, Chris Rhodes, Letizia Le Fur and Coco Capitán to six of its best-known venues (and trains), and gave them carte blanche to shoot what they wanted. Unveiled in April 2023, the series revealed subjective, auteur-like approaches to some beautiful places, each one “a destination as seen by the very personal and daring lens of a photographer”, says Champenois.
Realising there was potential to do more, Champenois and team then partnered with French publisher RVB Books to launch an ongoing series, titled As Seen By. The set of As Seen By photobooks includes Le Fur’s take on Caruso, a former palace on the Amalfi coast, and Capitán’s perspective on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, and its route from Paris to Venice. Other published photographers include Stefanie Moshammer, Rosie Marks and Thomas Rousset, and the most recent publication was shot by Colin Dodgson on and around the Andean Explorer train in Peru. These are commissions rather than corporate communications, and an offbeat approach to a genre.
“People are shifting from owning physical products to living experiences, so we want to capture that”
“Travel photography has always been left to a commercial and not-so-artistic approach,” reflects Champenois, who joined Belmond in 2016. “Our concept is to work with very talented people to shape travel photography for the future… Now the magic is that we have photographers reaching out to us. There are very renowned photographers who want to work with us.”
Champenois and team worked on an exhibition alongside the first Belmond Legends project, commissioning four Mexican artists to photograph the Riviera Maya, Yucatán Peninsula, where Belmond’s Maroma hotel was to reopen. Belmond exhibited the resulting work by Patricia Lagarde, Javier Hinojosa, Ilán Rabchinskey and Margot Kalach at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2022; ZONAMACO, Mexico City, in February 2023; and Photo London in May 2023. Co-curated by the latter’s co-founder Fariba Farshad and Mexican gallerist Patricia Conde, Fotografía Maroma marked the start of an ongoing collaboration with Photo London, with Belmond a presenting partner of the fair every year since 2023, offering behind-the-scenes support as well as exhibiting its new commissions.
This year Belmond will also exhibit at Paris Photo, taking its own booth after co-presenting with RVB Books in 2024. “The idea is, how do we engage with the best people to support and leverage the work we’ve done with contemporary photographers?” says Champenois. “Art fairs are incredible platforms, but they expand beyond photography. I thought it was more interesting to work with our experience, with the right partners, with more specialised audiences.”
More recently Champenois and his team – which includes Paris’ 20XX cultural agency – have expanded this work, launching the open-call Belmond Photographic Residency at Photo London in 2024. An annual competition aimed at emerging image-makers, the first iteration attracted more than 800 submissions, judged by photography heavyweights such as Simon Baker, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie; Carla Sozzani, former fashion editor and founder of Fondazione Sozzani; and the writers and curators Ekow Eshun and Antwaun Sargent. They selected Mexican artist Cecy Young as the winner, and Belmond invited her to stay for a month in Castello di Casole, a Medieval castle which is now a hotel, giving her €15,000, and setting up photography mentorships. Young’s resulting portfolio now joins the Belmond Legends series, and will be launched as a book by RVB at Paris Photo.
‘We may do an exhibition as well,” says Champenois. “Cecy is an emerging artist so it’s a great platform for her. The work is about her personal experience of the property and the region, meeting locals, going to local events, experiencing the land, the nature, the food. It’s very inspiring for travellers. People are shifting from owning physical products to living experiences, so we want to capture that, to show that lifestyle and how you’re going to live that experience when staying with us.”
Applications for this year’s residency are now closed but will open in Autumn of next year. Belmond’s other future plans include a commission around the Britannic Explorer, the new luxury sleeper train in England and Wales it announced in early July, 2026. The Explorer has three routes, into Cornwall, Wales and the Lake District, with a six-night journey from London to Cornwall or Wales costing £12,600, including meals prepared by chef Simon Rogan, and off-train experiences such as a trip to Hauser & Wirth Somerset.
As Champenois points out, Belmond has other photo-related activities. It publishes an annual in-house print magazine, Mondes, which champions travel photography as well as articles exploring Belmond’s slow-luxury ethos in a more editorial way than is possible in other brand channels. Belmond has also teamed up with cult Spanish magazine Apartamento to create a series of biannual cookbooks, titled Recipes and Wanderings, and publishes books with Assouline “more focussed on the history and heritage of our hotels”. Mondo, launched in 2024, is a newsletter pitched as Mondes’ digital sibling, while online Belmond Stories features selected articles from all of Belmond’s activities. In 2024 Belmond presented L’Observatoire carriage on its Venice Simplon-Orient-Express at the Venice Biennale, meanwhile, designed by artist and image-maker JR.
It is all part of a wider interest in communicating via cultural projects rather than ads or campaigns, a desire to speak about Belmond in terms of experiences rather than products. In this, Belmond is aligned with wider shifts in the luxury market, some of which have come from its stablemates; in 2018 the company was acquired by LVMH, the firm behind fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, and Champagne-makers such as Moët and Ruinart, which all have long histories in art patronage. The Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents goes on show at LUMA during Les Rencontres d’Arles, for example, while the Prix Maison Ruinart for emerging photographers is announced every year at Paris Photo.
“LVMH has 76 brands across the world, Belmond is one of the more recent acquisitions and one of the first lifestyle and travel brands,” reflects Champenois. “Previously LVMH was more focused on fashion and beauty, and alcohol, and I think everything started with fashion. When you work with fashion designers they have a very cultural approach – fashion designers are like artists, they work across many different fields. So culture has always been there, but it is true it has accelerated as a communication factor. For us it’s a way to convey something different to our guests, something that can be more personal. It’s a way to express our creativity and go beyond expected marketing.
“All the categories blend for people when they are travelling, they want to discover the local community, the artistic scene, the nature, all the terroirs,” he continues. “So I’m very interested in portraying destinations not only through our properties, but also what’s happening around them. Photography is the best way to capture that, to show all the experiences you can have when travelling with us. But it’s not direct marketing. It’s more about supporting art and culture to engage with communities and audiences.”
