A wedding and a stranger at Chelsea Registry Office

This image

This images comes from a wedding a photographed at the famous Kensington and Chelsea registry office. One of London’s most celebrated registry offices it’s seen Judy Garland’s marriage to Micky Deans in 1969, only months before the singer’s tragic death in London. Another poignant entry in the scrapbook is the marriage in 1928 of Mrs Wallis Simpson, which later prevented her next husband, Edward VIII, from remaining King making her the Duchess of Windsor. Prince Pavlos of Greece also got married here. In sport the former Arsenal footballer Patrick Vieira tied the knot here. After 28 years as a couple, Thorn married her partner Ben Watt in 2009 at Chelsea Registry Office. Also in music, the fifth Beatle Neil Aspinall married here. Chelsea Register Office is still one of the hippest places to get married. So this chapter in the Chelsea Registry office is about my couple Cate Mackenzie and Paul Wogan.

So the image is a straight forward black and white wedding photo of the couple relaxed in their wedding car…… Not really the image has many different things and parts to look at. Firstly the couple are completely relaxed in my presence and with the camera. The loving look on her face of just marring the man of her dreams is enhanced by the light coming through the rear window. For this to happen she needs to be turned slightly to look at her groom. I also need to be on the correct side of the car to see her face and also at the same time not be hit by several London buses. This part of the wedding photograph is then framed by the rear window of the Indian taxi.

This then brings me to another part of this image. Chelsea Registry Office is on a busy street and I am trying to hit the shot between the many passers by. Then one guy who could of been of any origin but just happens to be Asian stops to look at the beautiful newly married couple. I almost didn’t reallise what I had in front of me and came close to asking him to move out the shot. I then saw the whole picture and without moving anything took this photograph. One part framed by the window one part framed by the door.

Still not finished though, part of the interior of the car is red and red drew the attention away from the bride and groom. The final part to this wedding photograph and making the whole image work is making in black and white. Some slight shading of the front seats due to then being too bright and drawing attention away from the bride and groom.

So there you go you get the finished image. Not quite so straight forward when you look to create a piece of art rather than a snap.