WES ANDERSON wedding style colour photography
A lot of my wedding photography is shaped by cinema rather than by glossy, aftershave-ad-style wedding imagery. I’m not interested in hyper-polished, over-directed photos that feel more like a fashion campaign than a record of a real day. Instead, my main visual influence comes from film, and in particular the composition, humour and visual storytelling you see in Wes Anderson’s work - what people often describe as a Wes Anderson wedding feel.
That influence shows up in the way I frame scenes, notice small details, and lean into moments that feel slightly offbeat but genuinely human. There’s a sense of structure and intention to the images, but without turning the wedding into a photoshoot or pulling people out of the moment.
In practical terms, my work sits firmly in the observational, reportage and editorial camp. That approach comes from my MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, and from years of photographing weddings as they actually unfold. I work with what’s there, responding to light, movement and interaction, rather than directing people or staging moments for the camera.
I know that documentary and editorial wedding photography have become catch-all phrases, especially for London wedding photographers. Almost everyone uses it now, and on its own it doesn’t really say much. For me, the difference is in the references. I’m less interested in trend-led wedding photography and more influenced by cinema, composition and storytelling that allows humour and human quirks to exist naturally within the frame.
So if you notice a touch of Wes Anderson-style whimsy in my wedding photography, that’s very deliberate. Not as a gimmick, and not at the expense of real moments, but as a way of seeing the day with personality, restraint and a clear point of view. Get in touch if you want a Wes Anderson wedding!
Cinema is by definition about visual storytelling. And the best cinema uses subtlety and nuance to convey character and narrative without having to rely on dialogue - what is known as ’show not tell'. Think about ’There Will Be Blood’ or ‘Wall-E’. Not a word is spoken in either film for the first 20 minutes or so. And yet we learn so much about the lead characters.
I apply the same principles to wedding photography. So l look for authentic moments that reveal warmth, intimacy and personality. This applies particularly to the ‘couple portrait’ session, where I aim to capture something of your relationship. Of course, I don’t know what your relationship is like (although I assume it must be pretty good) which is why I concentrate on putting you at ease and capturing your natural interactions, mixed in with some slightly more posed shots. This is where I tend to bring in the Wes Anderson formalism and symmetry and warmth. But it’s not just Wes Anderson. I also like to make fun visual references to other films too.
I don’t put you in cringey poses that look like you’re in one of those grainy black and white aftershave ads. Those kind of images are the antithesis of cinematic storytelling. They’re all style without any substance. So I won’t make you do this:
So, while I don’t do that ersatz cinematic style that you see in ads, I certainly do believe in aesthetics and stylisation. As I said above, I do like Wes Anderson’s stylised production design in particular, and often find myself composing photographs that are influenced by his cinematography.
I also love the cinematography of Jane Campion’s films, like The Piano, Power of the Dog and Bright Star.
But none of this is to say that I am going to turn your wedding into a film shoot, or that I will try to contrive or construct images very consciously to imitate shots from favourite films! Instead, it’s just to say that cinematic storytelling does inspire my approach to wedding photography (sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes I watch a movie and think that looks a bit like a photo I took last week, as was the case with the example below).
