Whilst photographing a wedding i was interviewed about how i work … here is the story to be published.<\/p>\n
Ian Johnson is one of Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading Photographers of Real Life Weddings. But how does he find real life in a supposedly dying institution?<\/p>\n
He talks to Kenneth Coey \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n
A gust of mistral wind rips across Nice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Promenade Anglais and Ian Johnson dives into attack with his camera snapping wildly. Moments later, he selects an image from his digital viewer and with a broad smile announces, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNow that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real life shot.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122
\nAnd he is right. The bent back palm tree is partially obscuring the sign on the hotel roof, while at the front door the colourfully dressed doorman is grappling with his top hat and the shopping bags of a guest. In just a few seconds the famous Negresco Hotel has become the backdrop to explain that Ian is here in the Cote D\u00c2\u00b4Azur to shoot a wedding. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcA real life wedding,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he adds.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAll weddings are real, course they are\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he adds in an Essex accent that belies the fact that he has lived the last 15 years in Los Angeles and Stockholm. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDifference is if the photos show that. Do they jump out at you and capture that feeling, those emotions and special moments? Weddings are a living event not just a ceremony and I record that.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122
\nThe move from traditional group photos on Registery Office steps to a two day shooting trip for a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctypical\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Swedish wedding at a vineyard in the south of France is as immense as Ian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey from Royal Navy submariner to celebrity photographer in Los Angeles. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou learn patience when you are under water for 30 days and to go for what you want in the fresh air,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he says.<\/p>\n
And he did just that on one of his first assignments which was some roof top shots of Bob Hoskins to publicise the Peter Pan film getting its US release. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGetting to see the real person can be a problem in these shoots. But when I eventually pulled out a \u00c2\u00a32 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthrow-away\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 camera my mum had bought me in Clacton Market, Bob just fell about laughing and that got me my first magazine cover\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he says with a glint in his eyes.<\/p>\n
A wedding a few years later to Swedish designer Lena and life took a new turn with a move to Stockholm where he pioneered the concept locally of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcReal Life Weddings\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. While Stockholm remains his base, he also maintains extensive contacts in the US and UK dealing with private and magazine assignment weddings.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYeah, spend a lot of time travelling to exotic places\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 he says with a wide grin, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBeen to Carlisle, Aberdeen, Barbados, and of course Stockholm in the last few weeks. Location doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really matter to me just so long as I get the best out of it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the people after all, how they relate to each other and the environment that makes the difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n
I get the story of the weather disaster at a recent shoot in Tuscany, where they were engulfed by an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcend of the world is nigh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 storm making all outdoor shots impossible: except, that is, for the moment the groom saw his wedding car filling up speedily with hailstones through an open window. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPriceless that one, he thought the window was smashed and would have to walk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Ian adds \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbut that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I always like to play safe with an extra day for background shots.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n
Other stories from around the globe flow, but a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjet set life comment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 brings a scornful reply. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou wanna try travelling with this mate,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and brandishing his large and expensive looking camera in his equally large hands he continues, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcand I got two of them. No way I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m letting these into the baggage hold.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n
His wide shoulders and smile sag under the weight of the multitude of check in and baggage restrictions he encounters weekly as he jet-hops around. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEvery week it changes and no two carriers or staff are the same so you just need to go with the flow and stay one step ahead. I even got a trench coat made with deep pockets so I could carry them on.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n
But even before his laugh ends Ian is back snapping away at street signs and caf\u00c3\u00a9s for some background but adds as a finale to our meeting, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYeah, travelling is just like real life photography, be aware of your surroundings and adapt to the best possible advantage.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122
\nA few days later, an email from Ian Johnson arrives to let me know that the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctypical\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Swedish wedding in the Provencal vineyard had gone well, except that the chauffeur hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t checked out the route to the church and the bride was late. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLots of photos of a nervous looking groom … but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real life mate!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whilst photographing a wedding i was interviewed about how i work … here is the story to be published. Ian Johnson is one of Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading Photographers of Real Life Weddings. But how does he find real life in a supposedly dying institution? He talks to Kenneth Coey \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. A gust of mistral wind rips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[173,1241],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-photographers","tag-wedding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ianjohnsonphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}