Love on your own terms

Love on your own terms

Weddings come with an extraordinary number of instructions.

Who walks with whom. Who waits at the end of the aisle. What you're supposed to wear. Where you're supposed to stand. Which traditions you're expected to keep.

But none of those things are rules.

They're choices.

And perhaps one of the most interesting things about photographing weddings today is seeing people realise that.

Keep what means something

Tradition can be beautiful.

A ritual inherited from your family. A piece of jewellery that belonged to someone you love. A ceremony connected to your culture. A table filled with food that immediately tells you where you are.

I don't think weddings need fewer traditions.

I think they need more intentional ones.

Keep what means something to you. Change what doesn't quite fit. Invent something when nothing that already exists feels right.

And if you don't want any of it, leave it behind.

There are no parts to play

This becomes particularly meaningful when photographing LGBTQ+ couples.

For a long time, the visual language of weddings was built around very specific roles: bride and groom, masculine and feminine, one person waiting and another arriving.

But once those roles disappear, something interesting happens.

You have to make decisions based on the people themselves.

Who are you?
How do you dress?
How do you move together?
How do you want this to feel?

From a photographic point of view, I find that freedom incredibly interesting.

Because I don't have to fit two people into a predetermined idea of what a wedding photograph should look like.

I can photograph the relationship that's actually in front of me.

Individuality photographs well

The strongest celebrations usually have character.

Not necessarily because they're extravagant or unconventional, but because the choices feel connected to the people making them.

It can be two women in extraordinary tailoring.

Two men getting ready together instead of in separate rooms.

A ceremony without an aisle.

A dinner instead of a reception.

Forty people somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Two people somewhere nobody else knows about.

Or a huge party that keeps every tradition and simply makes each one its own.

There isn't an aesthetic formula for individuality.

That's the point.

Direction without imposing a role

My approach to portraits works in much the same way.

I will direct when direction helps.

I'll look for the light, the architecture, the movement and the composition. I might change where you're standing or ask you to do something again because I saw a photograph for half a second.

But I'm not interested in assigning roles.

I'm interested in understanding the dynamic that already exists between two people and building from there.

Because a photograph can be beautifully composed and still feel completely like you.

Your wedding doesn't need a template

Perhaps that's what Love, Unscripted ultimately means to me.

Not rejecting weddings.

Not rejecting tradition.

And certainly not trying to be different for the sake of being different.

It's simply the freedom to decide.

To take everything a wedding can be and ask:

What actually belongs to us?

Then build from there.

Your people.
Your clothes.
Your rituals.
Your place.
Your celebration.

On your own terms.