I recently had the opportunity to interview Neil Kendall, an award-winning boudoir photographer based in Cheshire, to learn more about his work and his thought process when creating and building his mini Hollywood sets.

Megan: How did you get into photography? Was it something you had always intended to pursue?

Neil: I knew I wanted to be creative and I had trained as an actor which I still do on occasion, but with photography it was a calling, it wasn’t conscious I just was following my creative passion… it just grew, doing shoots at weekends and evenings and then Instagram, well social media in general, just opened up that world to me and I just grew year by year organically.

M: You draw inspiration from vintage Hollywood and theatre sets, what about this style of photography and scale of set up that drew you in?

N: It was detail, the craftsmanship, the pure love of the women and men who built those old movie sets and still do.  I just saw it as being dreamlike and plus in Burlesque and Cabaret no one else was doing that and creating those sorts of sets, I also loved making things and building them from nothing, so the whole process was really cathartic and satisfying. No one, to this day is building real sets like me in this world or at least on the scale I do ... so I just really felt it was something that I genuinely was passionate about. It’s the lighting, the set build, the concept and then the posing of the model etc, that is a whole other process. But really, I just felt totally passionate about it. 

M: What is the thought process when creating an idea and building a set for a photoshoot? 

N: Its old school I have a sketch book so I do pencil sketches and so I have my little book of sketches. I draw inspiration from many places, old films as you said and also book my own imagination, but they all go into my book ...  then I work with a prop maker very closely who has a studio in my little town so that it’s a whole process as we then create the design together in terms of them being practical, then I dress the sets, lots of little detail go into them and a play around with them until it’s just right and then I look at lighting it. A lot of the sets are little like theatre sets so you can place lights at strategic points and create depth, the illusion of more space.  

M: What has been your favourite shoot to date?

N: I get asked a lot but there have been so many great ones. So many celebrities and really amazing characters. Halloween is always a big deal as I got all out on the sets then and I love the whole creepy Addams Family vibe of that, so the haunted woods and pumpkin sets that pretty epic and I did one of a 1920s wood nymph chained to a statue we had made of Pan that I love. The more fantastical the better.

M: What is your go-to camera kit for a shoot, and what is your editing process?

N: I shoot with a really simple kit I love my Canon 5Ds and lenses so its super simple. With Canon I can alter the settings without even looking at them whilst shooting they become that familiar. I am old school I tend to get it right with lighting exposure and metering in camera on set, so the time is spent lighting my images to perfection. Then in post I use photoshop but not to excess I add, I don’t like over produced images they look too fake. 

M: What would be your dream set up and model, if budget wasn’t a factor?

N: I would totally go to Jayne Mansfield in the fifties or Marilyn Monroe, imagine the fun so I would load the camera into a time machine or someone like Fay Wray on the set of the original King Kong.

Follow Neil Kendall on Instagram and Facebook for more of his work.