Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

I never intended to become a wedding filmmaker. In fact, I was a brat about it for several years. Firstly because I was cocky and wanted to be a big time film director (still do — HBO call me I’ve got ideas) and because I developed a cynicism to the wedding industry in general over the course of my adult life. A cynicism that probably held me back creatively — but you must understand, I didn’t come from a place or a generation that showed me great examples of true love … or authenticity in my opinion. Is that too deep for an introduction paragraph? Well, it’s true!

I was a teenager when Instagram launched, and all of the negative things we already know that bred from internet platforms blah blah I don’t need to tell you anything you don’t already know. Weddings in my early 20s became nothing more than a photo op and much less about the two people up there literally devoting their lives to each other. That is, that’s what I was seeing. I am well aware that this still happens. Vogue weddings has certainly set the bar higher and higher for what one can achieve having a wedding. Don’t hate me Vogue Weddings I would very much like to be in your publication one day I’m just gabbing.

My cynicism started to change when I got invited along to shoot a few weddings in the last couple of years. These couples asked nothing of me when shooting their weddings. “Just be there. We trust you.” These turned out to be some of the most fulfilling projects I’ve shot. Yes, these people are dear friends of mine — I knew their love stories from their inception. I think it was this combination of watching true love unfold and being trusted completely as an artist that showed me the potential of what embracing a role like this could really look like.

My approach to photo and video is simple: use what is real and what’s already there and make it beautiful. I look to the simplicity of old family photos, the style of decades past, of cinema new and old to guide me visually in the digital age. A pinterest board can be helpful, but an old photo album and a movie is where I find real treasure. Shit, you set up a Bolex in front of a table of old friends having dinner and you capture something irreplaceable. You end up documenting real life unfolding. That’s what I’m trying to do.