Chris Rhodes Documents Another Side of Portofino’s Hotel Splendido

From sculptural napkins to sun-drenched corners, Chris Rhodes’s new photo book offers an intimate, impressionistic portrait of the legendary Italian retreat

Two partially drawn cream curtains stir in the breeze, framing a strip of rippling azure sea beneath a cloud-dotted sky. Dreamy and perspectival, the photograph recalls an Andrew Wyeth painting – a slice of quiet beauty, offered up for our contemplation. It is the opening image of Splendido, a new photo book by British photographer Chris Rhodes, offering a singular portrait of the legendary Portofino hotel. Published by RVB Books and commissioned by luxury hospitality group Belmond, the hotel’s owner, Splendido is the latest instalment of As Seen By, Belmond’s ongoing series of artist collaborations. An accompanying exhibition of 27 photographs from the book opened last week at Aperture’s new New York space, bringing a splash of Italian sunshine to the chilly Upper West Side.

The Hotel Splendido has a remarkable past. Perched on a hilltop overlooking the Ligurian Sea, it began life as a 16th-century Benedictine monastery that was eventually abandoned after enduring repeated pirate attacks. In the late 19th century, a Genoese aristocrat restored it as his summer residence. It was transformed into a luxury hotel in 1902, and by the 1950s had become one of the Italian Riviera’s most coveted destinations, attracting Hollywood stars including Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

But for Rhodes, the hotel’s lore was secondary. Working across fashion, editorial and documentary photography, the image-maker is known for his distinctive visual language, characterised by close crops, unexpected compositions and an astute eye for colour. “Of course, you can’t entirely escape the mythology of somewhere like Splendido,” he tells AnOther. “Its history, the glamour and the sense of nostalgia inevitably influence the prism through which you see it. But I’m more interested in what exists beyond those established images. The small, seemingly insignificant moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.”

In Splendido, these details range from white porcelain dishes holding shapely tomatoes or bite-sized snacks to a mortadella-pink umbrella propped against a matching wall. Occasionally, people appear: glimpses of hotel staff in their orange uniforms; a woman in a chequered bathing suit admiring the sea view. But just as often, we encounter the traces they’ve left behind – brimming ashtrays or a white napkin balled up on a crisp white tablecloth, transformed into something almost sculptural through Rhodes’s lens.

The photographer treats the hotel interiors with equal attention, moving between close-ups of lively statuary, tactile upholstery and crumbling frescoes, and finding as much interest in signs of work and wear as in the trappings of luxury. The resulting portrait is sumptuous and painterly, sometimes to the point of abstraction – Rhodes is drawn to images in which “the relationship between colour, form and surface becomes as important as the subject itself”. Yet there is something quietly cinematic about his shots, the hotel’s character emerging through fragments that suggest action unfolding just beyond the frame. “One of the great things about photography is the ability to choose what you show and, perhaps more importantly, what you leave out,” he says.

The arrangement of images in the book – a faded, frayed jean pocket paired with a peeling archway, for instance, or the rotund face of a putto sculpture emphasised by the round road sign pictured alongside it – adds another layer of intrigue, a spark of possibility. “Two images placed together can suggest something that neither would communicate independently,” Rhodes notes. “I’m interested in creating a rhythm rather than a linear narrative.”

An avid traveller, Rhodes particularly enjoys the ways in which venturing to new places can offer a fresh perspective on the familiar. His first photo book, Hotel Mermaid Club (2019), brought together photographs taken across eight countries over seven years. “We all share similar daily rituals, but the small differences in how we approach them can say so much about a place,” he notes. “That feeling is often what leads me to take a photograph. Something catches my attention and makes me want to look at it more closely.”

And perhaps that is the particular magic of Splendido. Rather than the polished room shots and sweeping views familiar from interiors magazines or hotel websites, we encounter the storied Portofino retreat through Rhodes’s eyes – a series of evocative impressions, not unlike memories, that allow us to sense the hotel as much as see it. “I’m not particularly interested in producing a comprehensive or objective portrait of a place,” he says. “I’m more interested in conveying how it felt to experience it.”

Splendido, As Seen by Chris Rhodes is on show at Aperture, New York, until 15 November 2026. The accompanying photo book is out now, published by RVB Books