The Beauty We Make in this World - 2023 in Review - Manchester Wedding Photographer
“You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”
I started reading books entirely on my own at four years old. I swear I don’t mean that in a boastful way, just a factual one. So based on my limited maths skills (there’s the weakness!), I estimate that I have probably read upwards of 1200 books in the 34 years since. But of those 1200 books, there are a handful that have left an indelible mark in my soul and one book in particular whose message I hold close like a mantra or a creed. Barbara Cooney wrote beautifully illustrated stories of immigrant families forging their lives in America. My favourite was always the story of the Lupin Lady, Miss Rumphius. Miss Rumphius simply wanted to travel the world to faraway places, to live beside the sea and to make the world a more beautiful place. I think Barabara Cooney has perhaps found the secret to living.
I landed in this extraordinary career not entirely on purpose after a fair few years of travelling to faraway places. The idea of making a living as a real-life working artist was anathema to the advice I had been given by a high school guidance counsellor (true story, she was married to a very famous New Yorker cartoonist). I thought I would cobble together some sort of amalgamated career that would always include admin or retail or bar-work to fund my creative pursuits. SO imagine my surprise when, on the heels of shooting my first-ever wedding for a family friend, that job lead to another. And then to another and another…and we know the rest of the origin story I think.
I will always be grateful for the generosity of humans who trusted me in those early days and the teachers who supported and taught and encouraged me. Because NOW. My goodness, NOW I’m living the life of my goddamn dreams. It turns out having Miss Rumphius in my ear wasn’t so mad after all. Because the world is still on fire. The people in charge rarely have the best interests of anyone besides themselves in mind, there is unimaginable suffering and cruelty and misery and the looming reminder that we’re also ALSO killing our planet. If I stop and breathe it all in, it’s really just too much to bear. So in my little corner of the world, the good thing that I can do is document and share the beauty and the connections, I can share the new life and the beginning of new adventures. I can capture the ephemera of a one-night-only party that celebrates the MOST wondrous of all things: two people, joining their lives. I can do THAT to make the world just a little bit more beautiful.
The post-pandemic wedding industry has completely changed from what it once was - in many ways for the better with smaller, more intimate weddings being centred, a turn away from staid tradition and an embracing of celebrations that truly encapsulate YOU as a couple. I’m THRILLED for these changes, to see couples planning the wedding of their dreams and a lot less of the ‘we must do this’es.. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m also a BIG fan of ritual, of simplistic joining together, of solemnity and wholesome family-focused matrimonial mayhem. But with this wide new world of wedding possibility, there is so much more choice and a whole new crop of AMAZING wedding professionals are coming through and turning things on their head. I cannot express how incredibly grateful I am to those of you who choose my little one-man-band business to tell your story. 2022 was the busiest year for me professionally (and an extraordinary one to boot!) but in 2023 I’ve slowed down that manic pace, I’ve breathed in my work, allowed myself to take risks and say no and say YES more and the result has been some of the most creatively fulfilling storytelling I think I’ve ever done.
To the unbelievable humans who welcomed me this year with so much kindness and trust, who opened their homes and hearts to me and followed my insane compositional logic: you are the WHY . You inspire me and remind me every single time that I am where I meant to be - I’m doing the work and creating the art (because wedding photography IS art!) that I travelled to this faraway place to do. And I genuinely, truly, fall madly in love with each and every one of you.
Without further ado, because you’re here for the pretty pictures after all, today I am Miss Rumphius. I won’t scatter lupin seeds but I will share some beauty I got to make this year with you. Here is 2023, with love.
