Looking back at this wedding in Sicily is like using the way back machine or perhaps, back to the future, let's just say it was last century, so last century in fact it was shot on film!
I am not going to look up when it was actually shot all I will say it that it was 2 very good friends of mine who got married, a make up artist and a food photographer. Therefore most of the guests were “in the business of photography” make up artists, stylists, assistants, and a few dozen photographers and the dress was designed by Matthew Williamson.
The location was central Sicily, the home of the bride’s family, it was the end of August and as hot as hell.
A bit of a nightmare for photography, bright sun, white wedding dress, dark suit for the groom…..what to do? I wanted to shoot black and white so the answer was to downrate the film from it’s marked speed value of 400 to 200. This gives a low contrast look and the chance to record the blacks on the groom suit and the whites on the bride's dress.
The whole day had been immaculately styled and planned to perfection by the hosts. It would have been hard to take a bad picture the whole event was like a Fellini film being played out.
The tradition is that the bride, her father, bridesmaid and a page boy take a walk around the village before arriving at the church. Meanwhile the groom walks around the village in the opposite direction and the bride and groom meet at the church before walking down the aisle together.
After the ceremony, instead of the normal wedding car you might imagine an original Fiat 500 was decked out for the newly married couple to arrive at the amazing setting of an outdoor reception.
It was a great day and an opportunity to take some amazing pictures. The staging of the event was pure theatre and made it difficult to take a bad picture but the heat and sun made it more of a technical challenge.
Photographed using two Mamiya 7 range finder medium format cameras, using Ilford HP5 120 black and white film downrated to 200iso.
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