London has been a bit of a second home to us of late, and as we travel through the city we see so many venues that we recognise. The capital is, of course, a natural fit for our street-style wedding photography. We love utilising busy environments and incorporating unexpected facets of a scene and the busy London streets always deliver with an abundance of character as we travel from space to space. But shooting street-style photography has never relied on the presence of actual streets; it’s more about mentality than content, and we’re equally (if not more) excited when the venue houses both ceremony and reception. With no travel logistics to consider there is a seamless flow from ritual to celebration, leaving more time for guests to relax fully into the day and for us to shoot free and explore the full potential of the venue.
Speaking of venues with potential, Battersea Arts Centre is a space we’ve long wanted to shoot and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Whilst we had fun playing with levels on the steps outside, most of the day took place indoors; yet the bright, open spaces and added stage lighting made it feel like Colette & Rhys had bottled all of that London street energy and brought it right inside the venue. With so much light available we could shoot deeper focus with plenty of depth of field; combining stories and highlighting details that would otherwise blend into the background. One of our favourite things in photography (and another street-style wedding photography trait) is the idea that we can reveal stories that the subject was unknowingly part of: present in the scene yet oblivious to the full context around them. Our featured image is a good example: the frame is conceived, in part, to show off the detailing of the dress and fan, but by looking beyond that and way back into the background we can see another star of this moment: the little boy peeking out from behind his mother’s dress as she chats with the groom. These fun little spontaneous moments help to create unexpected stories; photographs that we’d be equally delighted to find on a day of street photography as we were to uncover them on a beautiful day of wedding celebrations at Battersea Arts Centre.
