Eight photographs, plainly captioned
The eight photographs run in four acts — establishing, detail, people-free process and the table — with two full-bleed stills cutting between them. Every caption says what its photograph shows and nothing more, and not one frame on this page contains a person.
Act 01
Establishing
Two wide views taken before anybody arrives: the table as it is handed over, and the floor before anything is carried onto it.
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Long tableThe banquet table photographed from the head of the room before the doors open: white cloth, a pink napkin folded at every place, gold chairs pushed in and the numbered card that tells the first guest where to sit. -
Room dressedThe same floor an hour before the doors open: round tables laid, a blush napkin at every place, gold chairs pushed in and the number standing in the centrepiece so the first guest through can find the seat.
Act 02
Detail
Two photographs taken close enough that the object stops being an item on a list and becomes a surface.
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BandsTwo bands put down on a bouquet of cream carnations while the room was being finished, one rose gold and one white, with a curve of diamante behind them. They are photographed where they were left rather than arranged on a cushion for the camera. -
VasePeach roses, white stocks and eucalyptus standing in a silver vase at the end of a row of pews. Nothing has been moved for the photograph, which is the point of it: the vase is where the florist set it down and left it.
BreakOne ceiling filling the whole frame: moulded plaster, a gilt chandelier hanging close overhead and the marble columns running away underneath it. It is the room looked at the way nobody in it on the day ever looks at it.
Act 03
People-free process
Two stages of a day with nobody standing in them, photographed where the work was left.
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SeatingCurved rows of wooden seats on cast-iron frames under three stained-glass windows, an hour before anybody sits in them. The hall has held them in that curve for a century and a ceremony is planned around it rather than against it. -
Dessert tableA two-tier stand of meringues, mushroom tartlets and ribbon sandwiches set on the reception table beside cut-crystal glasses and a jar of foliage. It is photographed as the caterer left it, before the guests came in to sit down.
BreakThe panelled dining room at the back, laid in white against the bay of leaded windows with silver candelabra down the middle and the green lamp low over it. It is held for one wedding at a time and nothing else shares it.
Act 04
Table
Two photographs of the table itself: the cloth a guest sits down to, and the sugar work that stands on it.
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Autumn tableA burgundy cloth laid with gold chargers, a napkin folded into a ring at every place and cut glass beside it, with the autumn arrangement of roses and orchids standing behind. The photograph is taken from a guest chair rather than from above. -
Sugar rosesSugar-paste roses photographed close under a low light, red petals and green leaves laid out on a wooden board before they go onto the cake. At this distance the work reads as a surface rather than as a line on a quotation.
Contact
Ask what a day like this costs
The photographs show the kind of work the studio does, not a fixed package. The figure for a date and a guest count is confirmed in writing before anything is agreed.