‘The world’s biggest bribe scandal’, they called it. The claims were indeed dramatic, and cracked code in leaked documents had exposed it all. Multi-million dollar bribes had allegedly been paid. The hands of corrupt officials in unstable states like Libya and Iraq had supposedly been plentifully greased so that some of the world’s biggest brands could get their own mitts on precious oil reserves. Allegedly orchestrating the ‘arrangements’ was a small, jet-setting family based in Monaco. Last summer, I was assigned to make a portrait of the middle son in this ‘family business’.

The call about this Saturday morning portrait shoot came at 5 pm the day before. The Guardian was planning an annual ‘Conversations’ special for the weekend magazine, and an extra celebrity pairing had been added to the feature last-minute. Time was tight to get the photographers’ work to the designer for layout, and the fact that one subject was on holiday in the South of France was not going to scupper the plan. Could I help in a tight spot? When I said yes, I had no idea how tight the spot would turn out to be.

Lakhdar lives a simple, anonymous life in the South of France, in a little village in the hills above Nice. He has children, enjoys gardening, and likes quietly watching the world go by from the terrace of his local café. Yet few of his neighbours know that his story has been told in the international press. Prior to his arrival on the French Riviera, Lakhdar Boumediene spent 7 years incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay and was the first detainee to win a court case for his release. I was commissioned as photographer to take the portrait for his biography.

The little boat lurched violently in the swell off the coast of Marseille. I hugged my photographer’s bag tightly, trying keep it safe above the rising water level at my feet. “Don’t worry, its not leaking too fast, we should make it back to port in time”, shouted Carlo, just above the noise of the wind. I was out at sea with a Sunday Times Magazine journalist, my assistant Lou and physicist Carlo Rovelli. A best-selling author, Rovelli is a specialist in black holes and the proud owner of a slightly dilapidated pointu fishing boat.

Considering its tiny size, Monaco is home to a disproportionate number of athletes. Around 60 pro cyclists alone live in Monaco and train in the kindly South of France climate. As a photographer on the French Riviera, I am often commissioned to make portraits of sportspeople there. But, until recently, I had never photographed a female pro cyclist. British road racer Lizzie Deignan was 2015 world champion and silver medallist at the London Olympics. On the verge of the release of her autobiography, a year after a drugs test storm that left her reputation in tatters, the Guardian Weekend assigned me to make Lizzie’s portrait for a cover story.