Veteran photographer puts bleak beauty of Suffolk village into the frame

The "forgotten and slightly ordinary" village of Ramsholt in Suffolk has what Johnnie Shand Kydd describes as a "bleak beauty".

It is a far cry from the life the veteran photographer once led.

The 66-year-old started his career as an art dealer in London's Bond Street.

After becoming "incredibly bored" with his high-end job in the big city, he turned his attention to curating a photography book – before getting behind the camera himself.

During the hedonism of 1990s London, he snapped upcoming artists and celebrities such as Damien Hirst, Dame Tracey Emin, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Kate Moss.

He was the stepbrother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

But, for his latest photography book, entitled Ramsholt, he swapped the raw energy of a partying social scene, for the tranquillity of a quiet village.

"You have things like the Chelsea Flower Show and everything's perfect, but actually what I'm interested in, in nature, is the mudflats and the reed beds," he said.

"East Suffolk isn't pretty like the Cotswolds and it's not dramatic like Northumbria, but there's a kind of bleak beauty to it, which appeals to my nature.

"To me, these strange, forgotten and slightly ordinary places are as important as the big and grand Capability Brown parks and things like that."

Kydd, who still lives in London, found inspiration in Ramsholt due to frequenting the area to see his 93-year-old mum, who lives there and in the county since the mid-60s.

During his visits he would take his dog on the same 50-minute walk, and the backdrop inspired the latest collection.

"It's quite difficult as a professional photographer because there's so much imagery now because everybody with a mobile phone is a photographer," he said.

"So, I just sometimes think the best idea is the very simplest, and so I set myself the task that every picture taken was in the confines of that particular walk.

"It's a kind of a miracle that the village has survived because it's so fragile. God knows what the future holds, but I hope it can carry on like this."

His photography book is due to be released in May.

"I was thinking it was a very private project, and I wasn't sharing it with anyone, but everybody's reaction has been ecstatic, which is a huge surprise to me," he said.

"There's a kind of darkness but a great beauty to the pictures and the book has a sort of integrity - it's taken time and there is nothing rushed about it.

"The very opposite of what my early pictures were."

Since snapping his first photo in the mid-90s, Kydd has gone on to see his images included in the likes of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

He has also exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London but, despite his success, he says he was far from a great photographer when he started out.

"I wasn't a photographer, but I just managed to have this extraordinary access and the pictures got better and better and better," he said.

"I was very lucky and just happened to have backed a very good horse and I think because I was slightly inept, it gave the photos a raw energy which worked.

"They just got so used to me being there and going click, click, click, that they hardly noticed I was there."

Kydd is the youngest son of businessman Peter Shand Kydd, who was the stepfather of Princess Diana, having married her mum Frances Ruth Roche in 1969.

Despite the connection, Kydd says he has "never milked it" in order to further his career, but admits she was a very special person.

"We were related by divorce, but I liked her enormously."

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