The idea of shooting a wedding has never really appealed to me, I really dislike posing people and so if I were ever to do it on my own it would have to be done in a very documentary style. I guess that this picture would best exemplify the style of photography that I like to do at a wedding. My niece asked me to fill in the gaps where her portrait photographer couldn’t be and this was one of them. The whole wedding party was waiting downstairs in the church and her groom called to her across the room. I happened to be ready as she swung her head to look towards him and I got one of my favourite two shots of the 700 or so that I took. We don’t know who either of these two individuals and yet we understand so much about the moment. The fact that there really isn’t much identifying information makes the appeal of the image more universal. The veil and the hairdo tell us this is a wedding, the swinging earring tells us that she has just now turned to look at her lover and even though he is in soft unfocused shadow there is a feeling of nervous anticipation to the image. I feel as though I was lucky enough to capture what Henri Cartier-Bresson calls “the decisive moment”. For me if there was one moment that captured the day it was this one.

-Russell Berg