What a reportage includes

A train brushing a stone staircase. A father rereading his speech in a corridor, certain he is alone. A laugh that starts at the far end of a table, away from the couple. Those are the images that carry across the years.

I photograph weddings as reportage. I watch, I move, I take what happens. Nobody replays a scene for me, and that is where the truthfulness of the photographs comes from when you look at them in fifteen years.

How a day is prepared

We meet beforehand, in person or by video. You tell me the schedule you have planned, the places, the people, what matters to you and what nobody else would guess. I listen, and I work out where the scenes worth waiting for will happen.

You check that the way I work fits what you have in mind. I leave with the mental map of your day.

From that first conversation to the morning of the wedding, you can write to me whenever you like. The questions rarely all arrive at once.

What the reportage covers

I am there from the preparations until late in the evening, around one in the morning. The ceremony, the couple photographs, the groups, the drinks reception, the party. One wedding a day, which leaves me entirely to your day.

I sometimes stay later, when the evening deserves it. Past a certain hour, tiredness settles on faces and the light gives up: the images lose what made them alive.

On the day, I keep back and I move a great deal. The field since 1992, training in press photography and the years at Gamma and Vandystadt taught me this: the scene never repeats itself, you have to be in the right place before it happens.

I often work wide. It places the viewer inside the scene rather than watching it, and gives the images a depth the telephoto flattens.

You have thought about dozens of details for this day. They belong in the reportage, as much as the faces do.

When you receive your photographs

A first set reaches you within a few days, when the wish to see the day again is strongest. The full reportage, entirely worked through, is delivered within fifteen days.

Every photograph delivered passes through my hands. I work in colour, then decide image by image, according to the light and the composition, which one gains from turning to black and white. If your eye goes towards colour, I take the treatment that way.

The images are yours, in high definition and at maximum quality. Your private gallery stays open for at least a year, and your guests reach it with a password to take away whatever they like.

A share of film

Film has been with me since Toulouse, since school, and it has never quite left me. Some weddings call for it, a light, an hour, a scene, and I change camera without thinking. Film gives skin back its warmth, takes a backlight where the sensor gives way, and leaves a grain in the image that nothing imitates. Those photographs join the others, without anyone always being able to say why they hold the eye.

The drone

I hold a DGAC remote pilot licence. When the place, the weather and the regulations allow, a few aerial views add to the reportage. They are part of the work and are never billed separately.

Albums

The books are printed on fine art papers, thirty by thirty centimetres, over forty pages. The selection waits for your gallery to be delivered: you have to have seen the images to know which ones count.

We meet again for me to hand you the book, or I send it, whichever you prefer. A print is looked at differently from a screen, and that is better discovered together.

Booking a date

We talk first, by telephone or by video. I then send you a contract, and your date is held on signature, with a forty per cent deposit.

Travel across the whole of the French Riviera is included. Beyond it, in Provence, in the Auvergne or further afield, it is costed in the quote.

What a reportage represents, and what makes its cost vary, is set out on the Pricing page.

The portfolio gathers complete reportages, the about page tells you where I come from, and the advice pages gather the bearings that help before choosing a photographer.

Frequently asked questions

How soon is the complete reportage delivered? Within fifteen days, entirely worked through. A first set reaches you within a few days of the wedding, when the wish to see the day again is strongest.

How long does the private gallery stay open? At least a year. Your guests reach it with a password to take away whatever they like, and the images are yours in high definition and at maximum quality.

How is a date held? By signing the contract, with a forty per cent deposit. A conversation by telephone or by video comes before that contract is sent.

Is more than one wedding covered on the same day? One wedding a day, which leaves me entirely to your day. I am there from the preparations until late in the evening, around one in the morning, and I sometimes stay later when the evening deserves it.

Is travel billed on top? Across the whole of the French Riviera it is included. Beyond it, in Provence, in the Auvergne or further afield, it is costed in the quote.

Tell me about your day, and we will see together whether I am the photographer it calls for.