Moving into the very beginning of September 2024 and it was an end of summer adventure to Plymouth and a photoshoot with a very cool model in a very quirky location.
Peggy WK is a model originally from Cornwall whose work I’d stumbled across a few years before. She’d created some amazing alternative fashion imagery with bags of attitude and was someone whose work really stood out to me. I can’t remember exactly how now, but we’d made initial contact, struck up a conversation and chatted a bit about shooting and had agreed we’d try to make something work when the right opportunity came about.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if that opportunity would ever come, but one night I found myself looking at an incredibly quirky Air BnB in Plymouth and things seemed to take shape from there. After talking it though with Peggy who approved of the idea we made a booking and that was that … it was happening!
Love Behind Closed Doors truly is a quirky place to visit. It’s easy to reach from central Plymouth and the insignificant exterior, perfectly blending into the neighbourhood, wonderfully hides what’s behind the walls. Entry takes you into a living area, with the surprise being a large elevated bed at the end complete with a stripper pole and a huge ceiling mirror leaving nothing to the imagination. I’d be willing to bet that mirror has seen some sights. Close examination of the surroundings revealed lots of interesting books and toys …
From the kitchen is where things become even wilder … a secret door leads to a back bathroom and bedroom (there are two separate bedrooms in addition to the ‘fun’ bed described earlier) where a further secret door takes you down into a dungeon complete with all manner of equipment and toys … most of which I barely knew the names of! There’s also a hot tub on this level, I guess perfect for relaxing in after the games have been had!
We hardly knew where to start and the reality was we probably wasted the first 45 minutes or so after arriving just pointing at things and giggling away. I rather think my sides still ache from laughing all this time later! Once we’d composed ourselves though we set about shooting. The idea was to include both video and stills (Peggy is a wonderful video creator and I’d leave that to her). I’ll readily admit to being really nervous at this point … almost all of my portrait work uses natural light, so in this environment with the flash … oh boy … I was out of my comfort zone.
Fortunately for me, Peggy was super kind and positive and she focused on making it as much fun as she could which helped ease my worries. We did a set in the main room with red as the dominant colour. Then a second in the dungeon to bring out Peggy’s powerful side. After this we dashed to Five Guys (cue lots of filthy jokes from Peggy) for some late night munches … I think it was gone 10pm at this point! After letting the food settle we returned to shoot one final set in the hot tub/shower before turning in for the night. I reckon it was 3 or 4am before we were finally finished and my eyes were more than heavy!
I hope you like these shots, I’ve picked some of my favourites to share the mood and although I still feel out of my comfort zone I was pleased with these ones and think they work well.
For those of you interested in staying at the Air BnB then go for it! It’s such an unusual, quirky place and if the things I’ve described appeal to you then I’d recommend it – you only live once!
For those of you thinking of working with Peggy, then I’d very much recommend her. She’s a powerful creative who has a strong vision of what she wants to achieve and accomplish. Alongside that she’s super friendly and funny, making her great fun to be around.
Although I’ve lost contact with Peggy since this shoot, she’s someone I’d love to work with again if the opportunity ever arises and regardless of that, I hope she goes on to achieve all that she wants.
Anyway, I did make a vlog of this shoot too, so enough words, you can watch that to see it happen in real time!
She’s a stunning model (she seems to be Asian?) and your work too my friend! I love the consistency across all the photos 📸
Thank you so much, I really did find it a challenging one so your words mean a lot. Peggy has Chinese (maybe Hong Kong?) heritage but I can’t remember enough to give more detail than that! She was great to work with.