For weddings with pulse, weather, nerve and a little beautiful disorder.
Melbourne is very good at refusing to behave itself. Four seasons before lunch. Grand old buildings beside graffiti and glass. Elegant dining rooms, brutalist corners, parks full of wind, laneways full of steam, trams rattling past while somebody is trying to have a meaningful moment.
Excellent conditions for wedding photography, really.
STRANGELOVE photographs Melbourne weddings with a mixture of documentary observation, cinematic composition and editorial portraiture. The photographs are allowed to be polished when polish belongs, chaotic when chaos arrives, and quiet when something quieter is happening underneath.
not one Melbourne wedding, but many Melbournes
A city wedding can mean vows in a garden and dinner in a restaurant. It can mean an old warehouse, a hotel ballroom, a synagogue, a church, a rooftop, a private dining room, a registry ceremony or everybody walking several blocks through the CBD while pretending their shoes are comfortable.
I have photographed weddings and celebrations across Melbourne including Half Acre, St Kilda, The Prince Hotel, Cutler & Co, Treasury Gardens and the inner city. Different rooms call for different pictures. I am not interested in forcing every wedding through the same visual sausage machine.
documentary when life is better than the plan
The core of the work is observational. I want the things that actually happened: a parent’s expression during the ceremony, the friend fixing a cufflink in bad light, the table halfway through dinner, the sudden rain, the guest who has quietly become the main character.
Those photographs become the connective tissue of the story. They are often the images that grow in value rather than announce themselves immediately.
editorial portraits, without turning the day into editorial camp
When the moment calls for something more deliberate, I step in. Melbourne gives us architecture, texture, hard light, soft light, weather, movement and all sorts of strange little corners to work with.
You will get direction when it helps. But the portrait part of the day does not need to become an expedition. Often the strongest work comes from doing less, looking properly, and letting the city contribute what it already has.
rain is not a cancellation notice
Melbourne weather has a flair for theatre. That is not necessarily bad news.
Rain changes colour, reflection, atmosphere and behaviour. Wind gives clothes and veils a life of their own. Grey skies can make faces sing. If the weather turns, we adapt rather than declare the art dead.
a few Melbourne stories
For a better sense of how the work behaves across different kinds of weddings, wander through Danielle & Matt at Half Acre, Bec & Max in Melbourne, or Matisse & Goldy in St Kilda.
You can also see the broader approach on the wedding photography page, or simply get lost in the gallery.
getting married in Melbourne?
Send through the date, venue if you have one, and the rough shape of the day. If you are still working that out, that is fine too. I can help think through timing, light, travel and how to keep photography from eating the wedding alive.