We’ve never done this before but we are sure glad we did - reached out to a far away wedding photographer we’ve been obsessing about and hope they would let us interview them just for the joy of getting to know more! And if we know you at all, we think you will deeply feel her vibe too - film is coming back, being reborn in wedding photography and we are loving it. New York wedding photographer AJ Tamari has written back to our fan girl request, so we are profiling her today with highlights of her nostalgia synapse busting photography that walks a beautiful line between the lo-fi gloriousness of our childhood photo albums and wedding imagery that creates works of art from the moments of your unique day. It’s a line we' wanna walk.

Read on for our AJ Tamari profile - be blown away by the way these pictures make you feel in the pit of your stomach and in a place you forgot about…. and get ready for seeing all these weddings in full over the next couple of months. * high fives *

Thank you so much AJ - we’ve loved getting to know you, thank you for sharing your art and world with us so generously!

What is your background - both in photography/creativity terms - and also you as a person?

I grew up in Minnesota and had a very midwestern, snowy, suburban upbringing. I was always drawn to creative things, but it wasn’t until I was 16 that I really discovered photography as my medium. The credit could probably all go to my unusual last two years of high school when I opted to go to an alternative environmental school that was (and still is) way ahead of its time in regards to teaching methods and helping students develop a true sense of independence. It had a reputation of being the school for the ‘misfits’ and I felt right at home there. Those were impactful years and I was given a lot of freedom which led me to finding the darkroom and the initiative in myself to dive in deeper, building my own darkroom at home, and experimenting with different cameras. It was an instant attachment and the darkroom was a haven for an introvert like me.

The years that followed high school were full of traveling, living overseas, and simply just following my gut. I look back on it now and really appreciate that my parents just let me do my thing. They never pressured me to go to college or were overly concerned with me figuring out a career. That really allowed me a lot of space for trial and error to get to know myself and develop some well-rooted intuition that I lean quite heavily on to this day. Naturally, my cameras were with me the whole way; a kind of central focus and means of processing my ever-changing surroundings and experiences. I came to think of them as my companions; a polaroid, a Hasselblad, and a 35mm point and shoot, always by my side.

At the age of 22, based solely on a feeling in my gut I couldn’t get rid of, I moved back to Jerusalem (a city I’d done a 1-year study abroad program in straight out of high school) with a one-way ticket and about $3000, determined to stay as long as I could. I had absolutely no strategy. Long story short, after 8 months, near the end of my visa and out of money, I gathered my Israeli friends for an evening to let them know I decided to throw the towel in and move back to the states. However, when I went into the bar where we were meeting, the owner, completely out of the blue, offered me an under the table bartending job. I was probably the single most ill-equipped person for it and I definitely let them know that, but for some bizarre reason, without knowing me at all, they said, “we don’t care, we want you to work for us if you’re up for it. You can start tomorrow if you want”. I went with my gut again, totally switched gears, and said “sure, why the hell not!”. I ended up staying for almost 5 years and meeting my now partner, Ronen while switching bartending shifts, and the people who owned and worked at that bar are now like family to me.

While that was 10 years ago now, it was one of those giant decisions I made really casually (kind of a theme in my life, haha) that changed my trajectory and also my relationship with photography. In an effort to get a student visa during those years, I signed up to study photography at a small art school in Jerusalem. While I really didn’t understand Hebrew, I committed to full-time classes for 3 years, and I could talk forever about how it solidified even further my love and familiarity with film, got me creating work that was far more introspective than I ever had, and also forced my brain to learn a second language (no small feat for me).

After my studies, I was worn out and Israel was in the midst of an uprising, so I moved back to Minnesota. Not too long after, very apprehensively I decided to dip my toe into wedding photography. I quickly realized that weddings are this perfect situation to blend together photojournalism, editorial, and portrait photography, share my love of archiving experiences, and more often than not end with me getting teary with appreciation while watching people blissfully let loose on the dance floor at the end of a beautiful day; not a bad gig. Needless to say, it’s been a really rewarding evolution to start blending elements of my personal work with my wedding work and incorporating my teenage love of mixing mediums, cameras, and following my intuition, all while meeting incredible couples.

It seems like New York is always the 3rd person in the relationship in your photos! In the most beautiful way - what does New York mean to you and what is your relationship with her!

I’m actually pretty new to New York! My partner, Ronen and I moved here near the end of 2019, so unfortunately, most of my time in New York has been spent in our Brooklyn apartment (due to the pandemic) and just walking around our neighborhood.

Being back in an international city is really inspiring though. I love hearing so many different languages again and having my daily life be so walkable. It was a difficult decision for me to leave Jerusalem after studying; it was the right choice, but I left with a pit in my stomach feeling like I’d never find a place on earth that felt like a true home again. Just recently though, I started to feel like New York might have what it takes. It also doesn’t hurt that there's so much visual energy here and at the end of the day, New York City is just iconic.

How would you describe an AJ Tamari couple? :)

Is there a common factor/thread that runs through them?

They’re all so remarkably unique, but I think what may tie them together is they’re all pretty disillusioned by the mainstream wedding industry, and as a result are planning their celebration in an incredibly intentional, curated way, distinct from what the industry’s flow is. They tend to be people who really appreciate art, design, or film photography, but often their top priority is putting together a day they can simply enjoy and just be themselves within.

What do they ask you for in terms of their photography?

I really love incorporating what visually inspires my couples into their wedding photography when I can, but most of the time my couples just want me to show up and do my thing. I’m well aware that to a lot of wedding photographers that sounds like a dreamland or a mirage, so I’m incredibly grateful that my people give me their full trust and appreciate my work so much that they just want me to be curious and create from their gathering.

And what would you say your own style is? (We actually meant AJ’s photography style, but we’re here for the sartorial insight as well!)

I’m pretty practical and utilitarian; I’m wearing all black 95% of the time. I love a good vintage sweater and a pair of solid boots and I've definitely considered just going the Steve Jobs, black turtleneck everyday route, haha. New York has been really inspiring style-wise though, and I’m finding myself eyeing color and patterns more and more, so we’ll see where I'm at after a few years of living here.

Who are you loving and have loved in the photography and art world - what are your big inspirations?

Lately, I’m such a huge fan of Tom Craig and Nadine Ijewere. They both have such incredibly colorful, refreshing work and shoot on film.

I do have my original loves though; Sally Man and Mike Brodie. They’ll always hold a special place of inspiration for me. As a teenager, they both had a really big influence on me. Sally Man’s work helped me find the magic in the darkroom, really romanticizing the patient, meditative side of it, and Mike Brodie is the reason I picked up an SX-70 Polaroid and his photographs even inspired me to do my own train hopping and hitchhiking across the states.

I could go on and on though; Larry Fink’s photographs of partygoers are incredible and I love to keep them in mind when I’m at wedding receptions. Martin Parr’s high contrast flash photographs and humor are always a reminder to stay lighthearted.

What is the average day in the life for AJ Tamari? I guess do a pre covid and post lockdown run down!

Before Covid days, I'd been riding such a good routine wave (which is a very rare thing for me to find; I’m a person that hates structure, but really needs structure, so I’m always at battle with myself). Ronen and I would wake up around 6:45 am, meditate for 30 minutes, give each other a big long hug, and then go to our separate workdays. I would start my day with a giant mug of green tea and spend the first hour or so of my day learning from one of many courses I’m working through (I usually have a few on deck, I’m a sucker for constantly learning). The rest of the day would be the usual; emails, editing, misc work tasks. And then normally ending the day watching The Office with Ronen. However, these days, with the pandemic, my schedule is very mushy, haha. I take lots of neighborhood walks, still drink a ton of tea, and spend time each day learning something new from a course or book I'm working through, but it’s been hard to find that consistent productive structure. I know I’m definitely not alone in that though, so for now I’m not taking it to heart.

What has stood out to you the most whilst doing Covid weddings - what do you miss, what remains and what is perhaps better??

I definitely miss dance floors. I get really emotional at the unraveling and dancing part of the night, haha. I’m a really shy dance-floor person, so something about everyone just letting loose and being joyful just really gets me. So I’m looking forward to that again, someday.

As for the better, I think couples are feeling more free to throw outside expectations out the window, which in my opinion, is always a good thing. I think it can be a blessing in disguise to have to slim down the guest list and it never hurts to be reevaluating what is really most important to you, which I think this whole year is making everyone consider.

Do you only shoot on film - we are in love with every shot you take - what do you love about shooting on film and are feeling the resurgence for film wedding photography, are you getting lots more enquiries for this look? Why do you feel it is making a comeback in this moment?

Thank you! And yes, these days I’m photographing wedding days on all film, start to finish. Working with film is nostalgic for me and it’s also the medium I’m most comfortable and at home with. I’m in love with the consciousness film seems to have, and I really appreciate the limitations it offers and the pace and presence it requires of me. All of that contributes to my style of work and keeps me inspired and tuned in. I’ll also never get over how beautifully it captures color and movement. It’s a medium that adds dimension.

I think film may be having a comeback because we’re growing worn out from our overly digital world and the hyper-perfection it seems to create. There’s a very craftsman nature to photographing with film, a real magic and meditation to the process that I personally could never seem to recreate or find with digital.

What do you find is your favourite time during the day to get the coolest shots - or not even time, the circumstance, or vibe? What are your go- to moments - or is much more of a spontaneous process?

Because part of my approach is to fine-tune what I emphasize based on each couple’s vision, every wedding day turns out being a kind of new venture, and that’s part of what I love about it. There’s always something different to be curious about with every gathering. So in that sense, I think the coolest shots happen quite uniquely at each wedding. I do tend to gravitate towards moments on the go, in-betweens, and when people are comfortable in a moment and I can feel like a fly on the wall, but it’s really important to me to not have a formulaic approach, and instead show up present to each day and see what is special to that couple and that gathering.

I think all of us who work in weddings have struggled this past year - what have you found particularly hard? Or not even necessarily to do with weddings, just the pandemic itself? Has there been any positives for you?

2020 was my first full year living in NYC, so I definitely felt a huge blow to the momentum of being in the city; a very ‘rug being pulled out from under you’ feeling. I’m sure everyone felt this way though, no matter where they were in life. I think the hardest part was the first few months of Covid hitting NYC when the shutdown just kept being ‘two more weeks’ after ‘two more weeks’. I’m a pretty introverted homebody, so I can stay home for a year no problem, haha, but the short extensions one after another really wore on me. I know so many couples got caught up in that as well, not knowing if they should reschedule their weddings or not. It was just such a new and saturated amount of uncertainty, that I think was incredibly hard for everyone.

While there are so many different layers of privilege to saying this...the silver lining has been having so much fun with Ronen. Even though we’ve been together for 10 years, we’ve never spent this much time together consistently and in such a small space, and somehow (quite miraculously), it’s been very very fun to be cooped up together. We’ve laughed more than we’ve ever laughed before. And putting the unbearably stressful moments encountered aside, sometimes it feels like that past year has been one very long delirious slumber party, but then again, maybe that’s just one of the many facets of what partnership is? :)

What are your hopes for 2021?

Now that I’ve recalibrated to the level of uncertainty that comes with living through a time like this, I’m really looking forward to buckling down and doing some personal work; I’ve had some projects on the back burner that I’m excited to get to, years of film that need organizing, and plenty of books to finally read. I mean, naturally, I would love for this pandemic to be over as soon as possible, but I hope to make the best of it while it's not.

FIND MORE OF AJ TAMARI’S WORK AT

ajtamari.com

and @aj.tamari

Thank you again AJ and can’t wait to show these beautiful weddings in more detail and the stories behind them xx

Fairytale of New York: We're in love with AJ Tamari's film photography and we don't care who know's it!

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