Often the art is in finding magic in unexpected places.
But sometimes, with magic and enchantment all around you, it’s about conjuring your own path through the spell.
Some weddings give you everything you could possibly dream of. Colour, glitter, extravagant outfits and costumes, animals, games, a festival setting and swimming in the lake; Emily & Jimmy’s wedding at the incredible Colehayes Park had it all. Yoga, hula hoops, daytime dancing, homemade catering, styling beg, borrowed and stolen by family and friends … the list goes on. With such a rich tapestry of personality, activity and lively antics the job of the documentary wedding photographer should be as easy as “point and shoot” … right?
But somewhere, beneath the random inflatable bananas and behind the puppet show, lies a question: why? What is it about this amazing couple and the people they love that means that this wild and wonderful wedding could never have transpired in any other way? Our role, as we see it, is not just to show what happened but to give a sense of who our protagonists (and those around them) are and what this all means to them; to see the stories behind and between those shouting out to be photographed and avoid being dazzled by the show.
“A wedding is a microcosm of society: a place where formality and relaxation come together in some sort of perfect balance, a friendly place where strangers and best friends stand side by side and where, the second you start looking for them, stories erupt at every corner.”
– Extract from “Is This Something?”
So whether we find ourselves in a wild party atmosphere or the most formal, black-tie event, our approach doesn’t differ. We want, as far as possible, to create images that go through the looking glass and provide not just a look but a perspective on the events in front of us. We hope, of course, that these photographs will have instant visual impact, but that first-glance experience is less important to us than our ultimate objective of bringing the viewer back in for a second look. Our approach to a day like this one, brimming with visual interest, is nonetheless to believe that there’s more here; more to this story than first meets the eye, more to be extracted from the scene than the activity it portrays. We want, where possible, to create images that earn a second’s pause – to lead the viewer through the frame and tell some element of story.
Because however striking, even visually overwhelming the aesthetic may be …
The devil is always in the details.
