DOCUMENTARY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
Award Winning London Wedding Photographer
As a documentary wedding photographer, I have one aim on your wedding day: telling the honest story of the day. In addition to honesty, I’ll tell your story with humour, with sensitivity, and with a whole lot of soul. Your wedding day will pass so fleetingly, and so preserving the special moments in photographs which are beautifully framed as well as full of emotion, is vital. Most importantly, this storytelling style of wedding photography means that you focus on one thing – enjoying the day – whilst I make sure that I capture all the fun, the emotion, the tears, and the laughs. I’m not going to ask you to stand around for hours, posing, whilst your friends have all the fun and drink all the champagne. You’ll be right there in your wedding, having the best time, taking it all in.
I’m drawn to black and white photography. The timelessness, how we are not distracted by the colour, and how we get straight to the heart of the sentiment and the emotion. If black and white is your colour language, this gallery will be a good place to start looking at my work.
Whilst I love B&W images, there is a time and place for colour. How do we accurately photograph the soft, golden light of a sunset in monochrome? Or the vibrancy of a room full of colourful balloons? The pop of bright pink confetti? We don’t. And that’s where colour photography comes in. View life in colour in this gallery.
Natural, Unobtrusive Photography
For over 10 years, I’ve photographed weddings for couples who want honest and moment driven coverage of their day. The couples who are drawn to my style don’t want the day to be a fashion shoot or be interrupted constantly. They want to relax and have fun, knowing that their day is being documented beautifully and creatively. I’m inspired by movies, by art, by street photography, and by a passion for creating timeless imagery.
As a wedding photojournalist, my work has been awarded by the WPJA numerous times. However, the awards are not what drives me; it’s creating a meaningful record of a couples’ day which will provide lasting memories for them and for future generations. As a documentary wedding photographer, my approach is very hands-off. This means I am able to capture all of the small, intimate, moments, and I do this without interrupting them or manipulating them. I aim a laid back wedding photographer who doesn’t look to control the day or cajole you into ‘having fun’. My skill comes in anticipating moments and having the experience to capture them all quickly and unobtrusively. These individual moments all join together to tell the story.
Real Moments, Honest Storytelling
There are a number of buzzwords used to describe this style of photography: wedding reportage, wedding photojournalism, documentary wedding photography, candid wedding photography to name just a few. The simplest way to describe it is ‘’fly on the wall’’ photography which tells the story of the day.
I strive to capture the atmosphere and emotion at every wedding. I’d describe my style as creative photojournalism and this honest and natural approach is also applied to the postproduction and editing of the pictures. You won’t see any faddy, vintage editing on my pictures – I want them to look timeless and as good in 50 years as they do now. For this reason, I keep the editing very light and natural, whether is classic black and white or true-to-life colour.
Cinematic, Timeless, Creative
I couldn’t recommend Steve enough. From our initial chat I knew that he shared our stylistic ambition for our ‘documentary’ photo preference and we loved every suggestion he made. His relaxed but uber professional approach left us feeling calm and confident on the day and this was especially appreciated in the hour or two before the ceremony! The photos themselves were nothing short of incredible. We cried and laughed throughout them all. I don’t know how anyone is able to capture someone’s personality and joy so clearly in the frame of a millisecond but he does.”
Rachel & Elliott