Photographer Crops Faces to Capture Cannes Excess
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- Sonia Reveyaz has spent two years photographing the jet-set crowd at the Cannes Film Festival, cropping subjects' faces to focus on luxury signifiers like Rolex watches, bare backs, and bright red lips.
- The Croisette transforms into a fashion show between the Marriott and the Grand Théâtre Lumière, with attendees sporting princess dresses, dazzling jewellery, and gleaming Lamborghinis.
- Reveyaz met a self-described jet-setter calling himself 'Gatsby Randolph' aboard a yacht he rented on the Corniche to present the second part of his biopic, 'Who is Gatsby Randolph? Part 2.'
- The red-carpet walk has become central to brand strategies, with corporations sponsoring everything from Nespresso beaches to Louis Vuitton handbags, and Reveyaz observed young women leaving screenings early because their dresses were too bulky to sit through a film.
- The festival draws a mix of celebrities, aspiring models negotiating agency contracts, dreamers, and onlookers — with most subjects eagerly posing for Reveyaz's lens and some even requesting private shoots by the sea.
Why it matters: Reveyaz's project reframes Cannes as a luxury marketplace where the real commerce — brand sponsorships from Nespresso to Louis Vuitton, rented superyachts, and villa parties in the Californie hills — now overshadows the films themselves, with the red carpet functioning less as a film premiere and more as a multi-million-euro advertising slot.
