Modern Vintage Weddings was born (or thought of) in Paris.

Not everyone feels it lives up to the hype, the anticipation. It is one of those fabled places that in your imagination might be just like Amelie or that French film from the 60’s you saw late at night on BBC2. And you get there and.. it’s a working city. With a lot of tourists. And you try and sip a cafe au lait in the street side cafe and feel you are over charged and want to go home. And the charming tiny lift is just annoying…

But for me it’s my soul, or where it lives at least. I have always dreamed of Paris and the connotations its name conjures up- it’s easy going, romantic, art and life affirming energy. Stolen kisses along the Seine, late nights in Montmatre pretending to be an artist, early mornings on the Left Bank pretending to be a philosopher. All of this was in my mind when I first left Gare Du Nord. And it looked like the Paris of my imagination, but was busy and noisy- a working city. That was until I, like so many, got my camera out at the Eiffel Tower and saw what I had dream’t through it’s lens. And blocked out the present day. Here is the photograph that I took ~

Paris Lamps-1

I took lots of photos that morning, and put them together and showed them to a few people. They were then exhibited a couple of times, and I even sold a few prints. I had come across a term in photography called ‘Modern Vintage’. It summed up for me the feeling or idea I had about these photos- they were modern scenes, but I wanted to, and did edit them in I guess a style which was harking back to past times. Each photo was, as I saw it, a place where people could meet- a lamp post near the Eiffel Tower, a cafe with a memorable name. Perhaps these people were lovers.. of course.. how Parisienne. And after all the photos were my interpretation of the city, so why not. So, all the pictures, I came to see, needed, to be complete, were these people. Not people modelling, but people with real emotions, couples, in love. And so, after being asked to photograph a friend’s sister’s wedding and realizing how much I loved the powerful story of a wedding day.. I had my people. And so, Modern Vintage Weddings was born. One day I got the chance to photograph a real couple there~

ROB_9040

As you can see, there are a lot of tourists, like I was, in this photo of Zahra and Rob making their way toward the Eiffel tower. But somehow, in my imagination, it’s just them, the tower and the sky.

So maybe my soul doesn’t live in the real Paris among the crowds, but in my imagination’s Paris, it does. And I think that is whats more important. That in our imaginations, we are free to dream, and see things the way we want to see them. That’s why I put so much effort in trying to capture weddings as a story of that day. That one day when a couple, together, hope to live their shared dream, whether with friends and family, or the just the two of them. They are there, in that photo- and they will always have that photo to look at, in the future, to help them remember that sometimes, if you try hard enough (Planning a wedding is tough) sometimes, on some days, your imagination and its dreams did come true.

David x

To see more of my work in Paris see here  ~ https://www.modernvintageweddings.com/2012/09/09/a-parisian-pre-wedding-shoot-zahra-and-rob/

I often go back to Paris and take photos. Here are a few of my favourites~

Locations include Montmatre and Pere La Chaise Cemetary.