Welcome to our first 10 Question interview! Every week (more or less) we will ask photographers 10 'rather difficult' questions. First up is husband and wife wedding photographer team from The Kitcheners - living in the UK and photographing weddings around the world. Thanks for sharing guys!
1. What is life to you? What it should be?
Yeah it sounds a little cliché but in the grand scheme of things we're only here for a fraction of a second so I guess enjoying life and trying not take it too seriously is something we at least try and keep in mind as much as we can.
2. There are a lot of professions out there - why be a photographer?
Photography was something that started out as a hobby which quickly developed into a passion, which ultimately developed into what we're lucky enough to be able to do today! Photography is obviously a massive creative outlet for us both but to be honest, having a 'job' that takes us to so many places and introduces us to so many different and interesting people is one of the biggest reasons why we enjoy photography as a profession. Being able to capture the story of one of the happiest and positive days in someone's life is seriously rewarding for us.
3. How much is your family an influence on the way you view life, see things?
Family is right up there with one of the most important things in life for us. We're both grateful to have had amazing support and encouragement from our families and I (Dylan) have my Mum to thank for encouraging me to explore different creative avenues when I was growing up. Joanna was very close to her grandfather as a child and has him mostly to thank for introducing her to art.
4. Do you have a “second profession” or passion?
It's funny how things work out in life but our professions before photography have now turned into our hobbies. I was a pastry chef from my previous career working in Australia and Joanna had lived for a number of years working in Japan and throughout Asia as a Japanese language translator/teacher - we both get to enjoy these things in our free time now. Besides that, I have a newly-found passion for skiing, Scotch whisky and I'm a bit of a technology geek and hardcore sci-fi fan. Joanna loves everything Asian, studying languages, cooking and is a bit crazy about her Boston Terrier puppy called Fredzio.
5. What movie did you love recently?
We've seen a heap of amazing movies lately but one that really stood out for us was a Polish film called 'Ida'! The photography and use of light is just mind-blowing.
6. Are you more of a one-frame-tells-the-story artist or do you prefer collections?
We're always looking for that powerful and emotional shot that can say a whole lot of words on it's own but as wedding photographers our primary goal is to capture the essence of the day though a collection of photographs. Capturing the emotion, moments big and small, unnoticed details and the mood and then putting it all together to re-create the story of the wedding day is pretty awesome.
7. Is/Are there any project(s) you wish you could do - or might do?
We both have a few projects that we really want to pursue but time usually gets in the way (that's our excuse anyway). Something that we both enjoy doing together is street and travel photography so we're hoping to be able to spend a couple of months travelling Asia soon documenting our journey and life there.
8. Do you shoot with your left or right eye?
I actually had to think about that for a second... the right eye for both of us.
9. Are there any unseen experimental images in your attic you’d like to show us now?
Back when Joanna was starting out in photography she used to have her own experimental photo series called 'emotional blur' and I used to do a lot of conceptual and digital manipulations. If you can find our old Flickr streams you can probably still see some of our early photography.
10. If you were to start all over again, is there anything you would do differently? Why?
If we had to start over again I don't think there would be too much that we would like to change. We're really happy where our journey has taken us so far and we've learned a lot from our experiences and mistakes over the past couple of years. If we had to start from scratch I suppose we would make sure to completely follow our hearts and not stray from that. When starting out in wedding photography I think it's easy to have insecurities and doubts about what you're doing simply because of all the incredible work that can be seen out there. Looking back now we realise that comparing yourself to others can only slow things down creatively and that the best thing you can do to continue to reach a place that you want to be is to follow your own intuition and believe 100% in your vision.
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