Interview with Muse & Mirror

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Ronja J. Waßmuth & Victor Hamke

What is your favorite thing about the work that you do?

What adore the freedom to shape all aspects of our brand in alignment with our personality and in flow with our personal growth. Also how often we are reminded to peel back what is not true to us and to be increasingly bold and unapologetic about our own, specific vision. On a creative level as well as on the business side.

Why did you found the LEGACY Workshop?

We were amazed about the energy and potential we saw LEGACY following unique values and aesthetics. We knew about the plethora of educational offerings, but our vision has always been very particular.

So we started to gather everything we’d look for ourselves, everything we’d want to get out of the experience. A safe space to create, to expand the mind, to create uniquely beautiful portfolio work – all while being totally immersed and undistracted. Our vision was for an introvert-friendly setting, a mystical place – a castle – and having catering included, so one can feel invigorated and taken care of. Even though we named this a workshop initially, it brings the soulful energy and experience to feel like a retreat.

What is the most important lesson you've learned on your photography journey?

This is where we might differ a bit. For Ronja being a photographer is more about being an attentive human than it is about being an „artist“. It is more about making people feel seen and relaxed then it is about putting them in the best poses. It’s about looking at people from a loving and open heart and showing them what you see in them - so they can see it, too.

For Victor, the objective is to figure out your uniqueness. Not in a sense of vanity, but more so the observation that everyone gains from understanding their own drive, passion, taste and qualities of character. These can and will eventually carry over into photography.

What would you tell your younger selves about where you are now?

We followed what we truly felt was our personal & unique aesthetic vision – unbothered by industry standards – and stepping back from the hard-hustle mentality that certainly works for many, but not for us. The revelation became clear: Contemplation and reflection as a powerful means to push forward – as a counterpoise to constant physical execution.

If every person at Legacy Workshop could leave with ONE THING, what would you want that to be?

If everyone leaves a bit more in love with their unique path and more courage to be themselves in everything they do, we are absolutely thrilled.

visit MUSE & MIRROr on Instagram

Interview with Carolina Sandoval

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Carolina Sandoval

You have very airy, serene and stylish aesthetics. Has your work always looked like this? If not, how did you develop your creative direction?

My work is constantly changing. This is because there are many influences and the technique is refined more and more. But my goal is not perfection, I focus more on communicating and making my emotions and feelings and those of the photographed felt through the images. I care a lot about aesthetics and this is the hardest job for me – to always be consistent with my editorial line.

How did you get started in wedding photography? And why have you specialized in weddings? / What else do you do / shoot?

My arrival in wedding photography was completely random. After finishing the Academy of Fine Arts in the Multimedia sector, in 2017 I flew to Madrid to specialize in author photography. Dduring the academic years I quickly realised that it was not very stimulating for me to continue the chosen path. So without thinking twice, I changed my course to Wedding Photography. It was the most successful leap in the dark that I could do. Many targeted workshops with great professionals from all over the world, I catapulted into a completely different reality.

It was not easy at the beginning to be able to express your feelings and personal style in wedding photography, but with time and a bit of experience this became very natural.

The part that satisfies me the most during a wedding are both female and couple portraits, where I can create the atmosphere I have in mind.

What is your favorite piece of camera equipement and why?

I like to share enough of what I do and also my private life, so I would say my favorite gear for convenience is my iPhone. When traveling I usually use a 35mm, and sometimes analog cameras.

With the photography knowledge you have now, what would you tell your younger self when you were just starting out?

Keep making mistakes and keep studying. Now many will seem unattainable, but you will see that the fruits will come if you stay patient ...

VISIT CAROLINA ON INSTARAM

Interview with Everbay

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Susan & Martin - EVERBAY

What's your favorite piece of camera equipment and why?

Martin has a 67 year old camera that he uses for his personal projects, travels and also weddings and what he loves about it is the “freedom from photography” that it gives him, there’s no buttons or functions to set up and ways to check the image afterwards, so you just are in the moment and really see it, and almost like capture in meanwhile, if it’s something worthy of capturing for yourself.

Sue has a compact film Yashica, that’s like an easy going companion with which she can explore the world while also not being distracted by anything to set up. She also likes the time that you need to wait before you see your images, so you can reflect on it.

What keeps you passionate about your work?

When the couple responds to their photos, it gives us the sense that something very important happened for these people and we have a part in reminding it to them. I guess this never gets old. We ourselves love to go through older galleries of our clients and look back at what a great day it was and when an album comes for them, Suzie wants to keep it for herself. :)

How did you get started in wedding photography? And why have you specialized in weddings? / What else do you do / shoot?

Having studied marketing and working in corporations, it would never come to our mind it would be possible to make a living as photographers, without any background, gear and contacts. And yet we couldn’t stop taking pictures. Somehow we got to a book by Australian wedding photographer Marcus Bell and a blog by Jonas Peterson and realized that wedding photography is actually quite a meaningful thing to do. Then a colleague at work was getting married, so we offered to document it fo free, and we’ve been doing it ever since.

Besides weddings we like to try various things, we’ve shot commercial campaigns, portraits for magazines, architecture, and we love something about each of these, but weddings are still our favorite thing to do.

Interview with The Framers

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Rodrigo & Filipa - The Framers

What are the key elements of your work / style / signature? And why??

When shooting weddings we focus on the small moments - we focus on things that could happen on an ordinary day but are interesting, funny, memorable or emotional enough to be captured. We believe that this approach really helps us creating unique images for each wedding, because these types of small moments are truly unique to a specific wedding, instead of, for example, the exchange of rings which happens on (almost) every wedding.

To make it even more clear we can give examples:

The mother of the bride’s dog peeing on a wedding chair, the groom feeding M&M’s to the bride on a vintage car or some guests trying to mouth feed the venue staff.

So, obviously, one of our key style elements is humor, we really do aim to getting images that will put at least a smile on anyone who sees them. And why? For two reasons: one - we love to laugh and two - this approach really keeps us motivated for every single wedding because we never know what we’re going to get!

Who or what inspires you lately?

We think our inspiration process happens on a subconscious level and can come from anything. However we do “consume” a lot of photography from very different types, from wedding photography itself to “author photography”, street photography or portrait photography. The one thing we don’t seem to consume as much is wedding photography similar to ours, we do get a lot of inspiration from wedding photographers with styles that couldn’t be more different than ours.

Our wedding photography is not just crazy and funny images, we obviously aim to accurately document a wedding, so we take all inspo we can get to improve our craft throughout all its facets. One of our biggest influences in wedding photography since we came across their existence is one of Legacy former speakers - Joel & Justyna. But we also get a lot of inspiration from photographers that create authorial work or even from our own authorial and street photography.

What aspect of this industry doesn't get talked about enough?

The client experience. We think that their experience with their photographer and photography service during the wedding day itself is extremely important. The execution of the photographer’s best work shouldn’t be a limitation to the couple’s enjoyment of their day, even if it means that are limitations to the work of the photographer. We can’t forget that ultimately a wedding is a day about celebrating someone’s union and that photography is secondary to that. We also think that our possible frustrations about those limitations we’ve mentioned (within reason) shouldn’t be apparent to the client. We should never be a stress factor to the couple, quite the opposite.

Interview with Kelle Sauer

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Kelle Sauer

What’s your connection to wedding photography and What else do you do or shoot?

I specialize in identity-related photography (as a photographer). As a natural co-creator, I began working in the wedding area, hoping to create with other creatives, and the wedding industry was full of people who were making beautiful work all the time.

A move out of an easy wedding destination inspired a two-pronged approach to my business, and now I work more with branding and identity development within the wedding industry (on both photographic and copywriting levels), supporting creatives who want their unique voice to stand out in the industry to the clients that are really right for them.

I am so passionate about people getting to live their dreams, I almost consider myself a fairy godmother, whether it's photographing that bride in her dream dress, showing brand new family photographers how they can create stunning fine art editorial imagery, or supporting artists who've felt stuck in industry pre-definitions instead of getting to live their dreams.

I'm here because I am fascinated by the things that people see and dream and make, because I believe the possibilities are endless, and I deeply support simple authenticity and sincere originality, especially within the art community and the wedding industry.

What is your favorite piece of camera equipment and why?

I chose this question because my answer surprised me! My favorite piece of camera equipment is my iPhone, believe it or not!

My reason? I am constantly trying to shoot outside my own habits and defaults, and my grown-up cameras and lenses often lock me into one way of seeing things. After 20 years in photography, it's easy to get stuck in defaults on my shoots, but if I pull out my iPhone and throw it over the scene, it immediately helps me create a new context for what I am seeing, intake the light differently, and recompose the setting or the mood in a different way. It's become a fantastic tool for pushing my photography to new levels.

What is one important lesson you have learned (the hard way) in your photography career?

That I have always had something to offer, no matter how I felt I was measuring up. I spent too many years afraid to take up space with my unique voice because I felt it didn't compare to what others were producing. I wasted a lot of time (and lost a lot of clients) on questioning myself and my worth. After a five-year sabbatical, I'm returning to this space with what I always wanted to offer, and I am no longer allowing anyone else to define what has always been in me.

With the photography knowledge you have now, what would you tell your younger self when you were just starting out?

I would tell my younger self exactly what I tell my photography & mentorship clients:

"You are already doing this, and here is what I see. Keep doing that."

The moment I started believing that, I became the photographer I'd always wanted to be. We're here because we already know we're perfect, because we believe in our passion, because we think our voice matters -- in the way that we express it. There is always room for growth and change and choice, but there was never anything missing.

visit Kelle on Instagram