Meaningful photographs sometimes must be taken in less than ideal locations. Emin Kuliyev photographed Ashim’s and Maddalena’s marriage day in New York City on January 5. For civil ceremonies such as this, he spends only two hours with the couple, meeting them for the first time before they walk to the city clerk’s office.
Kuliyev often photographs a couple’s feet. “For me, shoes are something personal,” he says, and finding something uniquely personal is hard at weddings. “Shoes say something about your choices, your tastes.”
Outside the city clerk’s building, his purposeful focal point is the words by the entryway, Kuliyev says. “My goal with that image was for future couples [to show them] I can shoot at that place like nobody else.”
With a capture of the couple’s rings alongside their ticket noting the date and time they arrived for their ceremony, Kuliyev gives the phrase “Take a number” romantic resonance. Kuliyev constantly looks for the special in the seemingly mundane.
The ceremony takes place in what Kuliyev calls “one of the most ugly places in the universe.” New York has only one city clerk’s office. “It’s hard to not repeat myself in this room. I’ve tried to find another angle to shoot the place in some not-ugly way.” He uses a flash to heighten what details he can.
Kuliyev’s years of street photography guide him to locations he uses for engagements and small weddings. “Photography has not given me a great amount of money, but it gives me feelings and knowledge of the city,” he says. “We were not just lucky. I know where sunsets happen in New York, and I slowly move the couple to those variations.”
See more photos from this civil union session.
Eric Minton is a writer and editor in Washington, D.C.
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