He was the stepbrother of Diana, Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“To me, these strange, forgotten and slightly ordinary places are as important as the big and grand Capability Brown parks and things like that.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
During his visits he would take his dog on the same 50-minute walk, and the backdrop inspired the latest collection.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/35a23a94fe3499a0f9558c46589fce64.jpeg\"\/)
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One of Kydd’s earlier photographs – a portrait of his friend and revered artist, Dame Tracey Emin [Johnnie Shand Kydd]<\/p>\n
His photography book is due to be released in May.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“The very opposite of what my early pictures were.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2a0b24071835cfde13563b1f639a5230.jpeg\"\/)
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Kydd also candidly captured musicians and Hollywood stars on camera, like The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan and film director Quentin Tarantino [Johnnie Shand Kydd]<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“They just got so used to me being there and going click, click, click, that they hardly noticed I was there.”<\/p>\n
![\"Johnnie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2285c774173bc639f659104d7ed1d996.jpeg\"\/)
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Kydd said that Suffolk’s rural landscape had a “bleak beauty” to it [Supplied]<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Despite the connection, Kydd says he has “never milked it” in order to further his career, but admits she was a very special person.<\/p>\n
“We were related by divorce, but I liked her enormously.”<\/p>\n
Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and X<\/a>.<\/p>\n More on this story