Painted postcard pretty, Jules de Balincourt’s The people who play and the people who pay puts the lives of ‘the beautiful ones’ under scrutinous surveillance. A generic symbol of luxury, this anonymous hotel could be anywhere: amidst the requisite palm trees and slightly shabby glass towers, sunburnt tourists mill about in their nowhere world of privilege. Within the aura of leisure, the all Black staff bustle unnoticed, their stealth-like omni-presence duplicitously reassuring. Picturing vacation life in all its ‘idyllic’ glory, de Balincourt presents a precarious and humorous view of 4 star resort cum bourgeois ghetto.