Wedding Photographer – a Doc Series (In Development)
Montreal. Summer 2024. Six different photographers prepare for an intense season of shooting weddings in the diverse cultural milieu that is Montreal. We take a deep dive into each photographers life, and ride-along as they meet unusual clients, navigate complicated cultural and logistical challenges on an actual wedding day, face fierce competition, and showcase the vast, $5B industry that is in the business of matrimony. A fast-paced, often hilarious and touching documentary show with, access, having built trust with many of the people over a decade in the industry.
The characters in the series are diverse, unique and have great stories:
Award-winning Wedding photographer Rabih Madi has just been declared one of ten finalists in the World Photographic Cup. He has become one of Montreal’s foremost photographers. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised partly in Lebanon, he is hard-working but funny, and has a naturalistic, timeless style. We follow him as he gets sponsored by Tamron, shoots glamorous weddings, begins teaching workshops and prepares to fly to Texas in April to find out if he is in the top three in the world. If so, on to Vegas for WPPI and possibly more awards! Humble and unassuming, we ride along on the intense weddings he shoots.
Intimate. Intentional. Inspired. Julia Garcia-Prat: “I grew up on an old countryside farm in the Rhône-Alpes region of France… it also gave me an appreciation for simple, everyday moments. And taught me how to find magic in the mundane“ (Julia). She is a world-traveller. While living in Korea she learned to take photos. Now she has settled in Montreal. Her approach to weddings is methodical. She prepares for each wedding as an athlete prepares for a race, her health and diet at top of her mind. Everything to be ready to turn a wedding day into magic.
Keith Pun enjoys being a photographer, but his first love is music. Formerly the lead guitarist of the rock-band Rubberman, his guitars line his living-room wall. Now a married father of three children with bills to pay, he would never call himself an artist, but he is a master of his craft. Keith is outspoken and unafraid to call attention to poseurs in the industry–people who have mastered the art of self-promotion without first becoming masters of their medium. He is the perfect foil for other photographers at events and meet-ups, not afraid to call “B.S.” but still willing to learn and ask thoughtful questions. In rare quiet moments he finds time to return to his first love, music, to soothe his troubled soul.
George Mavitzis is a photographers photographer. Beginning his career when 35mm film was considered too gauche for a wedding, and then transitioning to digital, he was one of the first photographers in Montreal to shoot naturalistically, preferring to capture his couples as they really were on their wedding day, rather than posed and lifeless. George’s heritage is Greek, and he often travels there. He is known by all other photographers for speaking his mind and having no patience for fools. Even so, other photographers consider him an artist. He has been through several upheavals in the wedding industry and in his personal life. The one constant has been that he lives with a camera at his side. But weddings are hard work, and although he loves creating photos and the responses to his work, in 2024 he will ask the question, “is this my last year?”
Braulio Rocha has a big chip on his shoulder. An outsider, working at the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Montreal as a janitor, he kept a DSLR Camera in his car trunk in case he would have the opportunity to use it. He often asked “real” photographers tif he could shoot with them, but he was always turned down. Feeling ignored, he decided to take on the industry, just like back in the days when he would take on the neighbourhood kids in a game of street soccer in the slums of Portugal where he grew up. Braulio is a lightning-rod of criticism, whether rightly or wrongly, some of the other photographers can’t stand him. However, one thing nobody can deny is that he is becoming successful, just as he knew he would. Now he is teaching workshops, and has amassed a huge following in his Facebook group online. His motivation is a better life for his family. This year he is headed to WPPI, the photographers’ Mecca, for the first time. Will the other photographers finally see him as one of their own?
Valerie Baron is boisterous and fun, she knows exactly what clients will love her, and she doesn’t worry about the rest. But her new family has made her re-think everything in her business: she needs to make sure that her work-life balance doesn’t take her away from home. Honest to a fault, she imparts wisdom and advice as an artist and entrepreneur. However, some things cause her pure rage, such as unpaid theft of her photos and interfering parents of the couple. She insists on being respected! As we follow her 2024 season we feel her strong emotions as well, joy and anger, sadness and determination.
The show plays host to several other characters who range from thoughtful to eccentric, such ad DJ Marco Ferri, wedding planners, caterers, and videographers (such as Rob Malo) and of course, couples.
