neil bedford & ben benoliel
Photographers, friends & founders of The Artists Pad in Saltburn, North Yorkshire
Neil Bedford and Ben Benoliel have a lot in common...they're Northern lads, hard-working successful photographers, and best friends since meeting at London College of Fashion. They also share a common interest in mental health, having forged careers in the fast paced, competitive creative industry. Their shared values led Neil and Ben to launch The Artists Pad – a one of a kind Saltburn retreat for creatives who need a break from the daily grind.
You’re both successful and established photographers that have moved back up north after many years of living in London. Tell us a bit about the journey that has led you both to launching The Artists Pad?
Ben Benoliel: Neil and I met at London College of Fashion on the Fashion Photography BA, we were two football mad Northern lads who loved fashion and photography but not necessarily the lifestyle and bullshit that came with it. We immediately bonded over our aligned values. Neil joined the course in the second year, I had found the first 12 months in London utterly crippling by homesickness and anxiety. Neil will never understand or appreciate how pivotal in my journey meeting him was; I now had something in London that felt like home, it kept me there.
We moved in together in our third year and lived together for several years, becoming closer and closer, we were like brothers. We (like most people trying to forge a journey in the creative industry) suffered from insecurities, imposter syndrome and doubts about whether we were ‘good enough’. It was this shared understanding of insecurities, even to this day after all we have both achieved, that led us to forming The Artists Pad.
Neil first visited Saltburn when we were still at university and fell in love, he ended up buying a flat in the town to relocate to back in 2017. His work never allowed the move full time and it was then we had the idea to go halves on the flat and turn it into a place where we could offer some solace, respite and inspiration to over thinking creatives like ourselves. We piled all our interesting and wonderful artifacts, books, works and furniture into the place to create a hybrid creative space of the both of us and our journeys. Obviously, finance was an issue and the business plan with TAP is that it wipes its feet being a traditional holiday let which allows us to offer retreats to peers and inspiring creatives free of charge when not booked by paying customers. Our ideal is to be able to offer 4 months of ‘artists in residence’ at each of the properties a year.
We want it to be a place of solace and inspiration for fellow creatives who just need a break, a little headspace or even just a rest! The profits made from the first four years of TAP1 allowed us to reinvest and grow the brand, now being able to offer double the amount of retreats in our beautiful town.
Neil Bedford: We met in London at LCF in 2005 and quite quickly bonded as we were quite alike. We were into the same type of stuff, from fashion to football. Times were very different back in ‘05 and football wasn’t quite as ‘cool’ as it is now, the same with street fashion and trainers. If we went back now we’d probably be part of the masses, ha ha.
I’ll fast forward the next 17 years of living in London and to moving back North in 2019, although I tried to do that two years before in 2017 when I bought my first flat in Saltburn from a good friend of Ben's who offered me it off market. I wasn’t 100% convinced it was the right decision but I knew putting my money into something solid would be smart and I could work the rest out in time. I then met my partner and that stopped it in its tracks, which is when Ben and I came up with the idea of The Artists Pad and what it might be. I sold 50% of the flat to Ben and it grew from there, from idea into reality. Once we launched in 2018 it seemed to be an instant success as in Saltburn and the surrounding area there wasn’t really another place like ours that we’d purposely made into more of a home than a traditional holiday let. We wanted our guests to feel like they’d ‘just come home’ and to be as comfortable as possible. I was also tired of grey velvet sofas and yellow cushions, naff rugs and grey carpets so that was my drive personally. Since the inception we’ve had all kinds of people stay with us, from paying guests to artists join us on our 72 Hour Shift programme which allows artists and creatives to stay with us for 72 hours completely free, if they need time away from studios for their own mental health or a place to work on new ideas. In 2022 our initial success had allowed us to buy and launch The Artists pad Too, a slightly different property closer to the beach, but with the same aesthetic; to provide travellers with a home away from home.
TAP is a unique concept in the sense that it caters for both holidayers and fellow creatives in need of down time and inspiration. Tell us a bit more about the 72 Hour Shift Programme, and why it was important to offer a place for hard working creatives to come and relax and re-energise.
Ben Benoliel: The 72 hour shift concept was born out of a discussion on what it is we were trying to offer our ‘creatives in residence’. We felt that what we wanted them to get out of it was a set period of time where they can stay with us and work on whatever it is they needed to to unblock some of the bullshit. Being a seaside resort in the heavily industrial Teesside, we wanted to play on words used usually in a negative capacity and flip that on its head. Rather than being glum about your impending ‘12 hour shift’ on the tools, we wanted our creatives to be buzzing about the chance to work hard on themselves for 72 hours.
Neil Bedford: I think the programme we offer is something we both wish we’d had offered to us when we were individually struggling in London. It’s a fast paced way of life and very different to the villages in Bradford that certainly I grew up in. It’s a place that’s vital for me to have been, studying and starting my career; but once I started to develop and grow up I quickly knew I wanted to return home. I used to escape the madness of living in East London most weekends and either stay at my parents or at Ben's parents in Saltburn. I found that moment of ‘normality’ really helped me focus as well as clear my mind of the competitiveness I found I was involved in. I just wanted to go home and not hear any noise. Not have to explain to people I’d bump into in the supermarket ‘what I’d been working on’. That’s not my vibe, the same as it probably isn’t the vibe of a plumber; we do our jobs and we move on to more important things, like life. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and I’m very fortunate to be making a living in this way, but I like to keep work separate from family life if I can. Looping that back into the 72 Hour Shift, we hope that offering applicants three nights away can give you a small sense of that freedom and whiteness that we all need.
The walls are covered in beautiful artworks and the rooms are filled with cool furniture, from Eames to Ligne Roset. I imagine all the artefacts have a story, are they from your personal collections?
Ben Benoliel: Exactly that, for as much as we have in common we also share different tastes in a lot of things, by having a space that is curated by us both and combining the things we have done and collected individually over our lifetimes makes for a really unique and meaningful space. We hope that the energy all of the things we add to the spaces will inspire and spark our guests into having a positive and uplifting stay.
Neil Bedford: They’re mostly items both me and Ben have archived over the years and the newer stuff we buy together. As I’ve explained earlier, we really wanted to offer a home from home and I genuinely think the only way to do that is to be authentic with your interior design. By using our items it gives a sense of ‘us’ as soon as you walk through either door. Something flat pack furniture or mass production sofas can’t do and aren’t right for us with this project. We both love brands. Brands are what brought us together in the first place. And those brands could have been anything from Starbucks to A Bathing Ape.
Reflecting on the past 15 years, you’ve both had impressive and very different career journeys as photographers. What are some of the highlights?
Ben Benoliel: Very rarely do you look back on what you’ve done, when you are in the mix and pushing to always reel in the next big one! I am a great believer in gratitude though and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have a quiet word with myself on how lucky I am to have achieved and experienced some of the things I have. My first highlight was when we were in second year at LCF we had an opportunity to enter a piece of work into a special issue of I-D magazine. I did a piece on loneliness and the struggles I had being away from home. My submission was accepted and printed in the issue and it was the first time I ever thought, shit, maybe I can do it!
My involvement with LN-CC and watching that brand gather pace, momentum and respect in the manner it did for the first few years was incredible. The journey didn’t go 100% to plan and there is a lot of disappointment in that, however since 2020 I am a member of staff again and am eternally proud to have been a founding partner.
Shooting Liam Gallagher, an icon of a generation. Thanks to my connections with Nigel Cabourn I was able to get access to Liam (he stood us up twice!). The photos were quick and not anything special but as a moment it was a big one. Never have I got so much feedback and affirmation, even if I had taken 100s of better pictures, it’s because it was him! I don’t shoot ‘famous’ people a lot but I wish I did a little more as I think that recognition is important to bank as confidence moving forward.
It feels like Saltburn is becoming more and more popular. Why do you think that is? Which places would you recommend visiting when staying at TAP?
Ben Benoliel: Saltburn has always been amazing, its just over the last 5-10 years that more people have discovered us. The rise in popularity of the town has led to huge investments and improvements in the bars, restaurants and coffee shops in town. I spent over 10 years in London and if you’d told me 8 years ago when we moved back that I would be able to get a great flat white and a sourdough pizza in Saltburn I wouldn’t have believed you!
My favourite places include The Guns Bar, 23 Milton Street, Camfileds, Coco + Rum, Pizza Station, Seaview, Signals, Alessis, Tomahawk and Brockley Hall.
Neil Bedford: Personally I just think it’s because it’s a special place. You kinda ‘feel it’ as soon as you get into town. It’s pretty much completely Victorian, the houses at least, and it’s yet to be completely gentrified. We have great places to eat and drink, but we don’t have them in abundance which is again what makes it special. There’s still a sense of community within the town and the residents are friendly. You can chat with pretty much anyone and that’s always going to be special, especially when coming out of London where you’re lucky to know who lives under, above or to either side of you! For me I’d just recommend going to the beach, sitting at the pier, walking from Saltburn to Marske and just clearing your head.
You can find more information on The Artists Pad here. Find Neil & Ben on Instagram: @Neil_Bedford & @Benoliel.
Shop Ben and Neil's pre-owned pieces from the likes of Nigel Cabourn, A Bathing Ape, Aitor Throup and more...
Photography by Ben Benoliel & Neil Bedford.
