Wedding photography for me is about telling stories: the story of the day, the story of the couple, the story of the place itself. I want the people who hire me to feel like they’ve been taken back, that they can relive their wedding day by looking through the images afterwards – and I want other people who were never there to feel like they were.
It’s for this reason that I’ve never felt compelled by the traditional wedding photos, where couples are posed and shot like still life props, draped on one another like models in a studio, a manufactured fiction. For me it’s about the real things, the nitty-gritty: the moments, the people, the interactions, the emotion, and in the case of Eddie and Belinda, the adventure.
What an adventure.
When they first got in touch I knew I had to shoot their wedding: an elopement to a far-flung Fijian island. Just the two of them: fun-seeking, intrepid. And without all the things that can sometimes get in the way at weddings, that can make us forget what they’re supposed to be all about.
Two people.
Love.
For this one, I shot three days, and in the blog I’ve included bits of the whole shebang, all the little parts that led up to the day and after the day itself, when we went on a bit of an adventure to a waterfall and out to an island on a little boat.
It was a blast, the whole time. Even with the ceaseless rain.
I also put together an audio landscape of the time we spent there, bits and pieces of atmosphere captured by the legendary Asher King, mixed in with music and vows. You’ll hear kids laughing and playing, chickens clucking, birds singing, rain and thunder, waves and wind. I’ve never done this before. I hope it will help tell the story a little bit better.
Enjoy!
~ Van
