Today we’d like to introduce you to Lena Neal.
Hi Lena, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My love for visual storytelling began and continues with filmmaking. I began studying early in High School, where I attended Douglas Anderson School for the Arts’ Cinematic Arts program. Filmmaking as a visual medium is expansive and constantly innovating. As I continued my film studies at the University of Central Florida, I simultaneously found clarity in what department of film I wanted to pursue and realized I had little financial footing to pursue the role of a cinematographer in a way that felt fiscally responsible to me. Though some cinematographers, or DPs, can go without purchasing their own equipment, the rite of passage usually begins with an entrepreneurial initiative of collecting gear, renting it out, selling, and trading. With the entry costs of equipment and the hefty pricetag of film, I maintained a regular practice of constructing images through photography.
My love for photography has only grown. My eye gravitates toward the stories that meld both journalistic practice and limerent depictions of often hardened cultural mores. Through portraiture, expository, and darkroom practices, I found a reflective catharsis in holding space for both the simple and the extravagant, the contemporary and the traditional. I can shoot more film, spend more time with subjects, and be involved in all stages of production.
A change in my major and insight from seasoned DPs inspire me to continue expressing stories in any way I seek. With shooting Digital8, 35mm, and 120, I’ve come to be extremely intentional about process over product. From studying film stock emulsions to learning how to service a camcorder, photography and film work remind me that the mediums at my disposal are boundless.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing about pursuing visual arts as an occupation warrants the descriptor “smooth road”. One of the most significant struggles I come across is something as simple as carrying on meaningful conversations. Forming connections with subjects proved to be difficult at first. But I am naturally inquisitive and learned to harness that to my advantage. Asking questions takes both subject and producer deeper into the process and pursuit of creation from an earnest place.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Hopefully, without sounding too conceited and gaudy, viewers of my photography would agree that I am at a place in my career where I am deserving of the title emerging– an artist to keep an eye on. Yet, I do not always feel a title is embodied by accolades, production credits, or CV padders but instead, experiences and time spent on a subject. With the most hard-hitting parts of my body of work coming from my still imagery, I set myself apart through an eye attracted to earnestness in subject and informed by process.
When I first began shooting film, I started completely manual, circumventing point-and-shoot cameras altogether. I had a basic understanding of exposure from studying cinema and shooting on a DSLR as a teenager, but had no true grasp of metering light and the demand of accuracy film desires. I view it now as a blessing, but I did not realize until about a year into shooting that there was an internal light meter in my camera. So, early practices for me warranted a quick eye for the type of light available in a room, approximating exposure based on practice, and shooting a roll with processing in mind, something akin to the principle of shooting motion for an edit. To make learning to shoot film more complicated for myself, my first major project was capturing the Sideshow/Takeover scene of Central Florida from 2022-2023, a car scene of intense, performance art-like car stunts in the dead of night. No light, just flamethrowers and fireworks. The dedication to building a car, and practicing how to handle it with ferocity behind a mask, kindled an affection for the loudly passionate as subject matter. It is one of my first instances of understanding the difference between a distant eye and the admiring lens.
Overlapping the time spent on my Sideshow Saturday zine, some of my earliest film production experiences were on the sets of friends in the film program at UCF, capturing BTS of their production days. This was a refining moment that allowed me to experiment with different stocks. Today, it has given me a valuable reserve of knowledge to make intentional decisions about what type of film I use as it relates to the creative direction of a photo story. Capturing the filmmaking process piqued my attention to the mechanics of the process as an art itself.
Graduating from 35mm to 120 was a learning curve initiated by an ongoing portrait series on Wicks. A different format, but a necessary move forward in exploring the similarities between the hunger to grow and the combination of defiance and commitment to deepening my repertoire of media. Wicks, as a subject, came about because of the beauty of hair in geometric forms and their kinship to the diasporic aesthetics of the Black American South. Photographing wicks felt both familiar, being born and raised in Florida, and adventitious, having only tame starter locs myself. Through this project, I have also explored traditional darkroom printing and continue to learn anthotypic printing, leading me to a loving place of versatility between mutually formed media, furthering my determination for projects that find resonance through an appreciative lens. Wicks is expanding now to broader aesthetics of the Gulf South, with a book in the works (shhh).
I am proud to have come to a place early in my career as an artist where my work reflects the deepest parts of my inner world with a commitment to learning how to articulate those inner workings diversely and forever.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Being a recent college graduate from a big football school always posed the challenge of finding a community, with school being more insular from the heart of Orlando. But, in a few short months of making regular appearances off-campus this year, I matured to realize these are just the growing pains of adjusting to any city. I am happy to say I’ve found both work and community in Orlando after 4 years of living here. I love that there is diversity in the types of art circles you can happen across. From filmmakers, to photographers, painters, producers, performers, car folks, and vintage markets, I am not only finding common ground in the city, but also finding that these groups have constant intersection. I can’t confidently say there is something I like least about the city, because I feel like I have just found my footing outside of school. I am most excited about how centralized Orlando is to the rest of the art world across Florida. A film or photo gig in Miami is only three and a half hours away, and even less travel time to Jacksonville or Tampa.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lenaneal.us/2023-1
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lenaneal_/
Image Credits
Personal Photo – Photographed by Davvon Branker, 2025
Sample images (in order of upload) –
Spencer Hinton – 35mm – 2024
Svpa Dave – 120 – 2024
Sideshow Saturday 1 – 35mm – 2022
Sideshow Saturday 2 – 35mm – 2022
BTS – 35mm – 2023
Jerry Carnation – 120 – 2023
Ulysses Owens Jr. – 35mm – 2022
Twins (requested not to be named) – 35mm – 2021
