Thanks for the great session Amy!

Enjoy!

I’ll confess I was a bit worried on Saturday that the wind and brisk temperature might force us to reschedule the shoot, but fortunately CariAnn and Scott are an outdoorsy couple who were enthusiastic about getting some portraits made. CariAnn and Scott wanted some of these photographs to include their four-legged family members, and I was happy to accommodate that wish (I love dogs!).

We enjoyed great light, and had a lot of fun shooting in Franklin and then later in downtown Nashville. Thanks for making me your engagement photographer guys!

Before:

After:

For all of our photographer friends here in Nashville: David Bean and I are throwing a party here at the studio to welcome all of the photographers visiting for Imaging USA and/or the Digital Wedding Forums convention this Sunday at 7pm. We will be serving wine and light hors d’oeuvres. If you are a photographer and are interested in attending, please email either me or David so that we can get a generalized idea of how many of you will be coming.

One of my goals for this year was to gain more experience shooting the weddings of other cultures. I was particularly interested in photographing Desi weddings, as they involve so many amazing colors and details. Desi is a word that comes from Sanskrit, and means “of the country,” and is typically used to refer to the people and culture of South Asia, including India and Pakistan.

My good friend Saad Syed is a Raleigh Wedding Photographer who has built a reputation as being one of the preeminent photographers of Desi weddings on the east coast, so I contacted him to see if I could tag along for one of his bookings. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to shoot the Shadi Ceremony of Faiza and Nadeem in Durham, NC with Saad and his wife Mahroo.

Desi weddings are commonly held over three days:
-The Mehndi Ceremony is the bride’s henna ceremony
-The Shadi Ceremony is the main wedding ceremony hosted by the bride’s family
-The Valima Ceremony is a reception held by the groom’s family

Each of these ceremonies may differ significantly based on the religion of the participants (Muslim or Hindu), and the particular cultural and family traditions of the couple. Faiza and Nadeem are Indian-American Muslims. Thank you to Faiza, Nadeem, and both of your families for welcoming me into your ceremony, and thanks to Saad and Mahroo for being such generous hosts.

Nadeem’s Mother

my friend Saad, “in action”

the ring ceremony

It is a Desi tradition that the female relatives of the bride steal the shoe or shoes of the groom, and he must pay them to get his footwear back. The bargaining process can be exciting, and very entertaining.

The studio is located in the Cannery building next to Mercy Lounge, just off 8th Ave South. We will look forward to seeing you there in the new year!

Happy Holidays!

image by David Bean

image by David Bean

image by David Bean

© 2009 Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos/Courtesy AMMO Books

The book measures 8.25″ by 10.25″, and sits about 1″ thick including the cover. The printing is crisp and attractive, and the layout is well executed. The brief biographical sketches and contextual information for the shots is presented in 4 languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. The volume is published by AMMO Books, who were kind enough to authorize my reproduction of the selections from the book as illustration for my review.

© 1999 George Georgiou/Courtesy AMMO Books

© 1999 George Georgiou/Courtesy AMMO Books

An excellent example of the insights in the book is the chapter that presents George Georgiou’s photo-journalistic image of a wedding in Kosovo, circa 1999. The image was taken very soon after the end of hostilities, of a bride who was marrying a Kosovar Albanian that lived in Belgium. According to the photographer, it is the tradition there that the bride is supposed to maintain a solemn demeanor, while the party goes on around her. It is fascinating to see Georgiou work this one composition for an entire roll of Tri-X, looking for the one shot where the arms around the bride form the perfect zig-zag composition and the expressions are all clearly visible. One common theme that I noticed in this chapter and throughout the book is that the selected image was seldom the very last image taken… usually the photographer doesn’t know when he or she gets “the shot.” This fact was especially pronounced to me in the Doisneau chapter, where the photographer’s iconic “Le Basier de L’hotel de Ville” was presented. Based on the numbering of the contacts, Doisneau continued to pursue an inferior variation of his famous shot where the couple is on the back of a bus after the fateful frame was captured.

I find the fact that these photographers frequently didn’t realize (or weren’t confident) that they had “it” jibes with my own experience, and reinforces for me the subconscious nature of photography. Some might interpret the fact that photographers often don’t realize that they have the shot in the can to imply that they arrive at these great photographs by luck, or simply by playing the laws of probability to create enough volume of shots that statistics will ensure success. However, this view is refuted by the consistency of the really great photographers and by the inability of prolific journeymen to produce truly mind-blowing work. I rather interpret this trend to suggest that all photography combines aspects of conscious and unconscious thought. Frequently, our unconscious may achieve the instantaneous recognition of the “decisive moment,” expression, or composition before our conscious mind is prepared to recognize it. Our conscious selves may be so wrapped up in our stylistic concerns, our preconceived notions, that we overlook the greatness understood my our more instinctive selves.

The Contact Sheet is a modestly sized book that is crammed full of realizations and insights such as those above. Its reasonable price tag enables this book to be a painless investment in professional development, or a wonderful Christmas gift for your favorite photographer.

The first room was, for me, dominated by the selections of Brassai’s night photography. Brassai published a book in 1933 called Paris de Nuit that broke new ground by capturing the dense, dramatic feel of this great city’s nocturnal form. Interestingly, Brassai’s remarkable image of the city as seen from the roof of Notre Dame, with a gargoyle in near silhouette in the foreground, was not actually a part of this book although it certainly fits in thematically. Brassai’s photographs evoke dreamscapes, and are clearly the spiritual cousins of the surrealist painters’ works.

Subsequent galleries explore the deconstruction and demystification of Parisian landmarks such as La Tour Eiffel, and then the female nude form. For instance, Ilse Bing’s images of the Eiffel Tower demonstrate the significant ambivalence that Parisians felt toward the huge structure for many years. In this image, you can see how Bing has truncated the bottom of the tower, and then confined it below the arch. Then, the lantern takes nearly equivalent precedence in the image due to the perspective chosen by the photographer. The composition is both striking and vaguely abstract, and it defies the conventional approach to venerating landmarks in photographs.

Ilse Bing. Tour Eiffel, vue du Pont Birk-Hakeim, Paris, 1932.

Kertesz went even further in his deconstruction of the tower, by focusing on its immense and intricate shadow, and upon the shadows of the people who pass underneath. The placard in the display makes the observation that the shadows in this image appear to be more real than the people themselves. This image again shows that even a less manipulated “straight” image may take on surrealist dream-like qualities.

Kertesz’s “Grotesques,” female nudes shot using fun-house mirrors, are an excellent example of the section dealing with the abstraction and manipulation of images of the female form. These images distort the nudes into fantastic, and sometimes discomfiting shapes.

A notable inclusion in this exhibit is a number of periodicals and publications that demonstrate the interplay between fine art and popular culture during this period, where the line between could become blurry indeed. Commercial work from many of the main photographers are included, and much of it is invigorated by their fine art pursuits. These printed works also serve to provide an additional layer of insight into the culture that surrounded the burgeoning surrealist movement.

One fascinating aside is the exhibit’s emphasis on the influence of Atget on Man Ray, Brassai, Kertesz, and many others. Atget was a relative unknown during his lifetime, who sought primarily to document the Paris that he viewed as losing its fight against modernity and homogenization. Atget focused primarily on long exposure images of details of the city both famous and obscure, and took a profoundly imperfect and personal approach to the imagery. His work was discovered by the art community (led by Man Ray) after his death, and was elevated to the pantheon of photographic greats. In many parts of the exhibit, the curator chose to place images by Man Ray and others beside Atget’s work in such a way to make the influence clear.

Much of the work in the exhibit, both still and video, featured the use of lens and darkroom manipulation to distort and stylize the subject matter. Images and films by Man Ray in particular demonstrate techniques such as the use of gel-smeared lenses and solarization to transform subject matter in the images to figments and archetypes.

One quibble about the exhibit is that some of the video display was of poor quality, and made it less watchable. La petite Marchande d’Allumettes was a 1928 film on projected display in the gallery, but much of the movie was so pixellated and blown that it was sometimes difficult to watch. It is possible this is due to the limits of the extensive restoration needed to bring this film to modern audiences, but much of the issue appeared to digital rather than organic degradation. In any case, I would have loved an introduction or more extensive explanation on the placard discussing the restoration of the film, and the challenges of reproducing it.

The exhibit flowed nicely, and featured the work of some of my favorite photographers. The presentation was excellent saving the video issues mentioned above. Be aware that some mature themes are presented in the photographs and films, so it may not be a suitable exhibition for all museum-goers. If you are in Nashville and have a few hours, I highly recommend checking this exhibit out!

The Frist Center – http://fristcenter.org

I was thrilled and honored to be chosen as Terrie and Troy’s photographer for their wedding at the beautiful Hermitage Hotel here in Nashville. Terrie is a corporate events planner, and she devoted all of her talents and expertise into making her own big day run smoothly. I was also thrilled that my good friend Kay Anderson was able to join me and contribute his unique perspective to the imagery.

One of my favorite moments from the day was Terrie and Troy’s first look. They first saw each other out on the veranda where their ceremony was soon to be held, with Troy waiting at the end of the aisle for Terrie to make her appearance. Kay caught the moment of Terrie’s first glance through the window panes as she entered the room, with her expression framed perfectly. Its a wonderful piece of photojournalism. When Terrie reached midway down the aisle, she briefly turned to show Troy the back of her dress, and I chose that moment to represent my view of the proceedings. You can see the pride on Troy’s face, combined with the joy visible in Terrie’s expression.

Another favorite moment was Terrie and Troy’s moment alone just after the ceremony, on the mezzanine above the Hermitage Lobby. You can’t pose a moment like that.

Thank you to Terrie and Troy for making me a part of your day!

You may also be interested in seeing Terrie’s Bridal Portraits and Terrie & Troy’s Engagement Session.

If you would like to pre-register to view Terrie and Troy’s wedding gallery when I complete editing all of the images, please click here: Terrie and Troy’s Pictage Gallery.

image by Kay Anderson

image by Kay Anderson

image by Kay Anderson