This past fall, I was invited to the wedding of my dear friends’ daughter, Rachel. I went not only for Rachel but for her mother, my friend Connie who passed away 3+ years ago. Rachel got married on Cape Cod, head over heels in love. I know this because a year earlier, after knowing the groom to be for only a month, she told me he was the one. Truly love at first sight. When Rachel asked me if I would take some photographs at the wedding, I laughed. I used to shoot weddings for money when I was young but quit the practice as soon as I was able to. I am not good at shooting those types of events and I say hats off to the professionals who are able to capture moment after moment. Rachel and Nick’s wedding was not going to like a normal one and I said I would be happy to shoot a pinhole image or two, one for sure, the length of their ceremony, what ever amount of time that was. In retrospect it was actually quite hubristic to imagine that such an exposure might work in the bright fall sun of Cape Cod. And I had no idea where they were actually getting married. But I packed my 4 x 5 pinhole camera and some color negative film loaded into holders and hoped for the best. The entire trip was bittersweet, full of laughter and tears. Missing Connie all the while but feeling her presence strong. I know she would have loved every minute of it.
The first image was made the night before the wedding-warm beautiful night on a Cape Cod beach. We ate great food, talked, laughed, watched the sun go down and yes, those are all people on either side of the sun. We dug our bare feet into the warm sand, everyone and everything aglow in that orange light. I was fortunate to get there in time for the setting sun and set up the camera and enjoyed
Rachel and Nick were married by a beautiful pond near Truro; The weather was perfect and the light beautiful. The exposures were so long, but people are recognizable in the blur. The landscape is intact. In those 45 minutes there was the magic that happens when two people come together in love and celebrate that with their friends and family. It turns out this was shortest exposure of the four that I took: the first image exposed for about an hour until well after the sun went down. The dinner image exposed for about two hours while incredible food was eaten; the lawn image exposed in the gray light of late twilight for about an hour. Rachel was a beautiful bride, and it so incredible to see someone I have known her whole life become an elegant, young woman. Here is an homage to Rachel and Nick and their love, so glad I got to make these images because you committed to each other.
The Party the Night Before the Wedding.
The ceremony.
After the wedding, everyone went to the home of Nick’s Aunt where we ate and danced and celebrated the beautiful couple. The lawn photograph exposed until it got too dark to see, about an hour.
Then, the meal! Fantastic food with lovely wonderful people. This exposure was about two hours. And finally when the dancing began, I closed the shutter.
