A painterly eye
We have just got our wedding photographs back from Haydn Rydings Photography and poring over them has been a mesmerising and quite profound experience.
As a hobby photographer and lover of social and urban reportage, I particularly and deliberately settled upon Haydn because we could see not only was he good (in this day many a wedding photographer is good because technology makes it ever harder to take a bad photo) but because his work very quickly stood head and shoulders above the photographers out there with a careful playing of documentation and emotion. You need more than a wedding photographer for your wedding. You need a skilled, painterly eye.
But this is where Haydn stands head and shoulders from others. His unobtrusive documenting of our special day has produced stunning photographic memories. Very adept at getting the formal, must-have photographs, Haydn also excels at spotting the smile, the held hand, the intent concentration of a parent, the stolen kiss and the moments of tranquillity amidst the familiar circus of a wedding. Working with a quiet patience defying just how he clearly scans a room and the beats of your day with an astute and cinematic eye, Rydings work puts the effort into effortless.
He doesn't just capture the happy couple at their best (and without resorting to wedding photography clichés). Haydn finds the dignity and reactions of everyone around his lens - with the black and whites particularly holding a vintage, stately sheen and his 'late summer' trademark shining throughout.
In a genre of samey Instagram-ness, Haydn Rydings' work has a soul, romanticism, a sense of narrative, cinematography and ultimately a cautious restraint.
Married in July 2015