The Chen wedding was on City Island in the Bronx. A life long New Yorker and still there are places I am going for the first time. I jumped into my car in Brooklyn and drove down Eastern Parkway to the Jackie Robinson Expressway where I sped through zigs and zags emerging onto the White Stone Bridge and then finally, an hour and a half later, City Island. I arrived early. Met the bride and groom, walked around the space, unloaded my gear, set up and started to photograph. There are so many cultural components to being a wedding photographer that one has to be sensitive to. I love photographing action and events and making visual narratives out of candid moments. Most of the people at the wedding, especially the elderly, were from Taiwan. As soon as I would point my camera at a group of people they would freeze up, stiffen out, pause their candid moment, look at the camera sternly, a kind of pose, and then continue. It made my job difficult. I just photographed more. Then I started to feel like people were turning their backs on me. I spoke with people, asked people to pose, directed […]
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At the tail end of 2015 I was second photographer at an Orthodox Jewish Wedding. I followed the Kallah (bride) documenting and photographing the female side of the wedding. The horah dance was particularly interesting to shoot. It’s a bit like a mosh pit– which I’ve been in many of, and, so, had no problem maneuvering through. Being a photographer is like being an anthropologist and I love that. I get access, insight and connections with cultures which are otherwise foreign to me. >> Newman Wedding
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