In 2020, photographer and filmmaker Evgenia Arbugaeva selected the starry skies over Château Lafite Rothschild as her focal point, conjuring up a compelling chiaroscuro effect.
The tradition originated in 1976. Baron Eric de Rothschild commissioned Willy Ronis, a pioneer in French humanist photography, as the first in a long line of photographers to cast their singular visions over Château Lafite Rothschild.
Almost 50 years — and just as many ‘Views on Lafite’ editions — later, Evgenia Arbugaeva followed in their footsteps.
2020 was unusual to say the least. It was the year of the first lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. But this didn’t dissuade Evgenia from contemplating how she might capture the atmosphere of Lafite on camera. She received an invitation to visit Château Lafite Rothschild, so she could immerse herself in the ambiance.
Saskia de Rothschild used Evgenia’s visit to give the photographer an insight into the estate’s history. After a few sleepless nights wandering through vines that led her to starry skies, Evgenia made the night her playground and the dazzling stars her focal point.
‘I need time to engage deeply and establish a connection with a location. Upon my first visit to Château Lafite Rothschild, I immediately sensed an air of mystery associated with its profound historical legacy. At night, I almost had a feeling of being transported to the ambiance of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. I aimed to encapsulate everything that traversed my imagination via photography.’
Evgenia is no stranger to nocturnal photography, navigating the darkness and using intermittent flashes of light. Born in Tiksi in the Russian Arctic, she is familiar with enigmatic and shadowy environments. As a freelance photographer, she enjoys revisiting the contrasting interplay of light and shadow.
She reveals that it taught her a valuable life lesson: working in the dead of night is an excellent way to learn how to extract the essential and focus solely on the valuable.
Field training, a legacy from the Arctic nights she knows so well, has allowed her to develop an authentic nocturnal instinct. Discerning when the moonlight will be most luminous and predicting the motions of the stars requires a skilled eye. The stars shift by 15 degrees every hour in an imperceptible dance. To capture these magnificent nights, Evgenia exercised patience. It took her three nights to immortalise the vines of Château Lafite Rothschild under a flawless full moon.
Evgenia Arbugaeva has vivid recollections of her time in the vineyards. As she sought the perfect location to position her camera, she listened to Saskia explaining biodynamic viticulture.
‘At that point, we witnessed some kind of planetary alignment. Biodynamics pertains to natural forces and lunar cycles, and there we were walking about under the same full moon. Saskia and I were investigating—both theoretically and practically—the magic by which grapes transform into wine.’
The photographer was so inspired by their conversation that she asked Saskia to pose under the starlit night. Draped in her grandfather’s cloak, the heiress embodies continuity, evoking the estate’s legacy that has endured through generations, just like the stars that return to the night skies over the vineyards. The expertise handed down from one winemaker to another is mirrored in a series of equally bewitching photographs.
Evgenia Arbugaeva, a native of Tiksi in the Siberian region of Russia studied photography. She completed the documentary photography and photojournalism programme at the International Centre of Photography in New York. She has received several awards, including the ICP Infinity prize, the Leica Oskar Barnack prize and the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund grant. Her work has achieved global acclaim, featured in esteemed magazines like the National Geographic, Le Monde, Time and The New Yorker. In 2023, her documentary HAULOUT received an Academy Award nomination
A ‘Regard sur Lafite’ from Photographer Charlotte Dumas
BRAIDING OUR WILLOWS TO CREATE NEW PERSPECTIVES.
Once a year, we invite a photographer to interpret Château Lafite Rothschild. In 2023, we welcomed Finnish artist Anti Laitinen.
Every year, world-class photographers focus their lens on Long Dai