In the 1950s and 1960s Slim Aarons fine-tuned his “environmental portraiture” in Palm Beach. His goal was to celebrate the good life in the most natural of ways and he did a grand job. For a New Yorker, this was an ideal place to photograph wealthy, glamorous people living beautiful, leisurely lives in stunning settings.

His work has always informed me because it was his charm that gained him access to the great locations and private estates. Access is such an important word in photography and he delivered the masterclass.

There is a privacy to the community that is central to its appeal and order and the irony is that privacy probably needs to be encroached to tell the full story of a unique place. There may be the shops of Worth Avenue, the iconic hotels, fabled restaurants and members clubs, but the truth is that so much of Palm Beach life goes on behind closed doors. The homes of the islanders are pivotal to the sense of place and this is the island where the value of real estate takes on a whole new level.

The population of Palm Beach Island is around 10,000 and the total value of the real estate is estimated to be $30 billion, that equates to $3m per person. To give context, the comparative number on the island that is the UK is $140,000.

I tend to work in monochrome, but colour is integral to the tapestry of Palm Beach; the greens and the pinks are key components to the island’s story.

If I showed this picture to 1000 well-travelled Americans and asked them where it was taken, I think over 75% would guess Palm Beach. That was the goal and yet there are no specific individual visual prompts. It is the sum of the parts.