Celebrity Photographer Vijat Mohindra On Shooting Plastic Girls in Plastic Worlds

Hollywood’s favorite photographer, Vijat Mohindra, is living the dream. He’s shot Kim Kardashian multiple times since 2009, to market Skims and her scent and just because. You’ve probably seen his photos of Doja Cat, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Cardi B… the list of his subjects is long and populated by luminaries from across the spectrum of celebrity. He’s shot Pamela Anderson for Paper. Nicki Minaj for Complex.

How can you spot a photo taken by Mohindra? There’s the signature colorful, Pop-ish aesthetic possibly best described as Barbie-esque. But despite the candy pink and blue and yellow plastic fantastic backdrops, Vijat’s subjects are always vibrant, dynamic and very much portraying themselves. Perhaps that’s not surprising, as he learned the ropes from famed celebrity photographer David LaChapelle. In the years since, he’s shot music videos, magazine spreads, album covers and more for some of the world’s top talent.

Mohindra is still shooting, but he’s been branching out. Earlier this year, he opened his first studio space in downtown Los Angeles, Powder Room Studio LA, which has a dozen uniquely Mohindra-esque sets in which to shoot everything from stills to reels. The 4500-square-foot space looks like Barbie’s 1990s-era dream house, and Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera were early fans.

We chatted with Mohindra on a busy weekday morning about the new studio, why he loves polished portraits and his advice for young photographers.

Observer: What’s the story behind the Powder Room?

Vijat Mohindra: I’ve been a photographer—a celebrity photographer—in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, and in those years, I designed and created a lot of different environments for my shoots. Over time, I started collecting all these amazing set pieces that were left over from my shoots. They were just too gorgeous to throw away. I had them in storage at one point and I looked through it all, and I said, oh my gosh, all this stuff looks so great together. Maybe I can put it together in a format that could bring it all to life. And then I realized that could also be a place where creatives, photographers, directors, filmmakers, etc., could come and see all these amazing pieces.

It looks like a Barbie house to me. Why?

It has that Barbie aesthetic because a lot of my work is very synthetic—very plastic, with a kind of glossy sheen to it. And then it all just sort of happened to have these different elements that coincided with the Barbie aesthetic but with a very ‘80s take on it. Pink is the color I use a lot. In a way, it made sense to create this surrealistic Barbie dream house experience.

Selfie museums are still on the rise—can just anyone come in and take some snaps with the sets?

Honestly, the space is for everybody. I have a lot of people from Instagram and TikTok coming in who just book the space for a few hours to create their own videos.

How common is this type of space in L.A.?

I’ve heard from some other people who have studios with a similar type of setup, with standing sets. They started back maybe around like 2018 or 2019, when there were maybe a thousand or so listings online of places like this throughout the Los Angeles area that could be rented for shoots. Now in 2024, it is up to around 8,000 spaces like this. It’s something that exploded in a way. Not all the spaces listed are aesthetic and design-focused the way mine is. I feel like the Powder Room is a very special category.

Let’s talk about your work. How do you feel about Photoshop?

I’m a big fan of Photoshop. I went to school for photography at the Art Center in Pasadena around 2003—right when film was switching over to digital—and I graduated around 2007. That was when this big debate was going on as to whether film was the future or digital. But when I took a digital photography class toward the beginning of my education, I realized that it was the way of the future.

It was amazing to be able to get all these different pictures and put them on the computer right away. You didn’t have to scan or retouch negatives. Photoshop opened a whole other dimension of creativity that wasn’t there for me with film. So, I’m a huge fan. I think it is beautiful, and it enhances pictures in an amazing way. That said, I still have respect for and really love certain film photography. I think there’s value in it, and I do see a lot of people going back to that nowadays as a trend because so much digital photography is over-saturated.

How do you feel about representing celebrities in a flawless way?

In a flawless way?

Glossy. That very L.A. aesthetic.

I really love a polished celebrity photograph that is very well-lit and has that glossy, punchy aesthetic to it. I’ve always been inspired by that type of celebrity photography going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s with Andy Warhol and the Interview Magazine covers. I think that it brings that glamor and special sort of sparkle that we kind of associate with celebrities. I like photographing them that way because I think that’s the way I see them in my head. And so that’s the way I want to put them on paper—to show people how I see them. I feel like it’s very powerful and it’s kind of show-stopping.

What’s it like behind the scenes once you actually get to know these celebrities?

For most of my celebrity photographs, there have been a lot of collaborative experiences where I will work with the artist to figure out what their aesthetic is or what drives them. And we build a concept around that and bring it to life from there. I really like finding out more about a celebrity’s personality and their background and what they’re interested in and then pulling that into what we create together.

Who are some of your favorite celebrity photographers and why?

My absolute favorite is David LaChapelle; he’s just one of my icons. I have been very lucky to have been able to assist him at one point during my career, which was a huge highlight. I just love his take on celebrity photography. It’s so different from anything that I’ve seen and is so imaginative and creative. I really look up to the creativity that he brings to the celebrity photography world. He takes celebrities out of their worlds and puts them in this hyper-creative, colorful, aesthetically driven space that I just find so beautiful. I also love the work of Annie Leibovitz, as well as Pierre and Gilles, a French photography duo who shoot creative portraiture that’s aesthetically driven. I love Miles Aldridge, who’s more of a fashion photographer but shoots celebrities in ways that are highly creative and very colorful.

What is next for you now that the space is open?

I’ve been working a lot on Powder Room Studio LA—trying to get it up and running. It only launched this past January, but I’m happy to say that we are pretty booked up at this point. We’ve been getting quite a few bookings from brands as well as individuals, and we’ve gotten some great celebrities into the studio, too, like Paris Hilton and Cardi B. The space has been getting some great recognition, and that’s still my focus.

Last question. What advice do you have for young photographers entering the industry?

I’d give them the same advice I was given when I was in photography school, which I still think about to this day. One of my professors told me that you should always shoot what you love, and that really left a lasting impression on me. I feel like if you’re not shooting what you love, you don’t really put the same passion behind it. Passion is what really shows in your overall body of work—it’s the thing that people connect with the most.

Check out Vijat on Instagram at @vijatm.