Michael Joseph (1941-) - Fernet Branca Unpublished Group Scene

“Fernet Branca Banquet” — Michael Joseph
London, 1970 — Print from original colour transparency, Signed by the Photographer

A wild, feverish, gloriously excessive feast of a photograph — and one of the most unforgettable images Michael Joseph ever staged. Fernet Branca Banquet is a full-blown carnival of characters, costumes, food, flesh, and pure theatrical anarchy, captured at the delirious height of late-1960s/early-1970s London creativity.

At first glance, it’s chaos.
But look closer — really closer — and an entire world ignites in the details.

On the left, a woman casually chats while balancing a giant platter of fruit. Beneath her elbow, a man clad in 18th-century costume whispers something conspiratorial to a masked figure. Across the table, a turkey threatens to slide off its platter while a dignified silver candelabrum keeps its composure. Behind it, a woman swathed in pink feathers leans into laughter so unrestrained you can practically hear it.

There is a topless showgirl feeding a man a cocktail sausage.
An aristocrat with a monocle deep in conversation with a drag queen.
A juggler. A clown. A bishop’s mitre that has no business being there.
And, almost hidden in the upper left, a statue seeming to judge the entire room.

The longer you look, the more it reveals — a Renaissance banquet crossed with a psychedelic cabaret, staged with the kind of visual orchestration only Michael Joseph could pull off.

And the story behind the image is every bit as astonishing as the scene itself.

This orgy-type shoot was commissioned for the Italian digestif Fernet Branca.
But the budget was minuscule — so small that models were paid in alcohol and handed £5 each for a taxi home, a detail that has become legend among those who were there.

The job was completed, the photograph delivered…
and then came the problem.

The client’s uncle was the Pope.

The team instantly panicked:
nudity everywhere, debauchery in every corner, champagne fountains, suggestiveness, and more bare skin than a Roman fresco. It was clear this image would never make it to print without divine intervention — so it was quietly shelved.

But the photograph survived.
And over time it became exactly what it always was: a time capsule of an era when London was fearless, funny, decadent, and gloriously alive. People who lived through those years often look at this print and smile — nostalgia poured straight into the frame.

Shot in London in 1970 and printed as a c-type print in only three copies, this signed piece carries all the colour, richness, sharpness and texture that analogue photography at its best can deliver. It is a masterclass in staging, timing, wit, and perceptive human chaos.

This is Michael Joseph at his peak — a maestro conducting pandemonium, finding poetry in excess, and crafting a visual symphony of the era’s irreverence.

A rare and electrifying collectible
from a photographer who knew how to turn a single photograph
into an entire party.

As with all pieces I sell, it will be packaged with the greatest care and devotion, honouring both the history and the craftsmanship of this irreplaceable work.