It’s not often that I take people’s portraits outside of my series projects, but when Haley asked me to photograph her and fiancé Colter’s recent engagement, it was a emphatic yes. I’ve worked with Haley a few times over the years, photographing each other, and I was honored to be asked to capture this moment for the young couple.
Haley and Colter got engaged at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts about a month before our shoot, and we agreed the museum was the perfect backdrop for the photos. Shooting in the museum proved to be a little trickier than we expected—I’d done a photoshoot with my cousin there a few years ago with no issues, but it seems their policies have gotten a bit stricter since. Our plan had been to shoot mostly along the perimeters of the museum, near sunny windows and away from the main galleries, and especially wanted to capture a few shots in the space featuring the tall stained glass panels above, where Haley and Colter had taken their first engagement photos on their smartphones the month before. But as we entered the space and began setting our things down, a museum guard informed us that photoshoots were limited to the museum’s downstairs atrium and the Marble Hall. He was friendly about it and almost apologetic, a wink in his voice as he said he was obligated to tell us the policy before he left the corridor, giving us a few minutes alone to quickly snap the first-of-the-roll shot above.
We had a little better luck in an alcove on the east face of the building where the original museum entrance is located. The first guard had told us that the photoshoot policy had to do with something related to copyrights, so I asked the guard manning the east entrance if we could grab a few photos as long as we didn’t feature any of the art in them, and he shrugged and said sure.
We moved to the Marble Hall and atrium for a few more indoor shots before heading out to the grounds. The day was a mix of “act now, apologize later” and asking permission, grabbing what we could in restricted areas and making the most of the approved ones.
More from this day to come. The color film stock used is CineStill 800T and the black and white is Ilford Delta 3200, both shot on Minolta SLRs.
Thank you for reading, you’re beautiful.