‘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.

Strutting down La Promenade des Anglais in Nice or La Croisette in Cannes, enjoying the air / the view / the buzz of being admired or admiring: ‘flâner’ [the neat French word for this activity] is a favourite pastime in the South of France. It is a pleasure that anyone can indulge in, regardless of age, means and looks. However, when I, as photographer, was assigned to spend the afternoon with a woman wearing a niqab, I learned that strolling on the French Riviera is not always enjoyable and Nice, it turns out, looks rather different through a veil.

Handelsblatt magazine chose the simple title of ‘King of Bling’ for their portrait of fashion designer Philipp Plein, and any visitor to Plein’s sumptuous villa in Cannes will quickly see why. Crossing the threshold, their first view will be of an enormous stuffed lion, frozen in an upright posture of attack. But, bravely continuing past it, the visitor will be rewarded by a wall display of hundreds of bottles of special Plein edition Moët & Chandon champagne, and a beautiful, young Pleinite waif might step out of the shadows to greet them. In his self-styled design jungle, Philipp is king – and what better place for this kind of jungle than the Côte d’Azur?

Björn Wahlroos is arguably Finland’s most important businessman. As outspoken as he is successful, arch-capitalist economist Björn is chairman of three of the biggest companies in the Nordic region. He also regularly participates in debates on the financial future of Europe in Brussels and has recently written a book about free market economic theories. Danish business newspaper Børsen decided to run a feature about Wahlroos, so their journalist flew down to join him in the South of France and I was the photographer commissioned to take his portrait.

Something rather exciting is happening up in the sky at the moment. As I type, the first ever round-the-world flight of a solar-powered plane is being attempted and the current base of the mainly Swiss team of engineers working on this pioneering project is right here on the French Riviera. One might think that Monaco, with its two crowded square kilometres of land, would not be ideally suited to housing a space station, but one would be wrong. Monaco is currently home to the control centre of Solar Impulse and I recently went down to photograph the project’s Mission Control Engineer, Michael Anger.