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This Is How: ‘Waiting Time’ by Emilie Marchandise

Lovely to have Belgium-based This is Reportage member Emilie Marchandise on the site today, telling us all about how she captured this Reportage Award-winning shot from Collection Six. Thanks so much, Emilie!

I’m specially bound to this photograph. It has been photographed for A&G’s wedding.

We are late August and it is still very hot. The London bus has just put the groom and the suite on the forecourt of the St. Catherine’s Church in a lively neighbourhood in the heart of Brussels.

We are all waiting for the bride to come with her dad in one of his old-collector cars. While waiting, we learn however that the bride’s dad suddenly suffers from serious dizzy spells and that an ambulance is taking him to the hospital.

While the bride & groom and their families are worried about how the bride’s dad is doing and with whom the bride will enter the Church, life goes on in front of the Church… And a little wedding girl takes advantage of this waiting time to savour the rays of sun on her face.

The strength of this photo is to capture in one picture several reactions to this waiting time : the concern of the adults, the happy-go-lucky attitude of this little wedding girl who takes the opportunity to sunbathe and the indifference of a neighbour who has settled on this public bench to read her novel.

Finally, the story ends well. The bride enters the church with her older brother and her dad follows the Mass from his hospital room. The doctors are able to cure his dizzy spells in a few hours so that he can join the wedding party later on.

You can see more of Emilie’s work on her website, or here on her This is Reportage profile.

We have lots more documentary wedding photography tips by our members; a real treasure-trove of advice and insights!

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Aga Tomaszek

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