Rachel Carr and Christopher Senteno of Carr + Senteno are photographers from London and Los Angeles and shoot worldwide. The team capture weddings in a documentary style with an editorial eye and their work is embedded in authenticity. Carr + Senteno have spent a decade documenting modern love and welcome all celebrations of love.
Tell us about your business!
We’re photographers Rachel Carr and Christopher Senteno. We were made in Los Angeles and London and now divide our time between both sides of the Atlantic. We’re a former luxury travel editor and music photographer who've now been shooting weddings together for more than a decade.
We met in California shooting music festivals, and then two of our most creative friends got married and were our very first clients: they didn’t want "wedding photographers" so they hired us instead (and Future Islands were the wedding band). We’ve been shooting for artists, musicians, writers, designers, hotel lovers, jetsetters and other creative, stylish, funny, brilliant people ever since.
Do you travel for weddings?
Absolutely! We split our time between our HQs in Los Angeles and London but love destination weddings too. Our passports are always at the ready and our camera bags are always packed.
How would you describe your style?
Like real life, but better. Our photography is rooted in authenticity, but pushed a little towards cinematic and pulled a little into art. Clients love our 35mm shots, but often think our digital shots are film, too. Nothing is fake - we love real people, real skin and real emotions - but everything’s elevated. The end result is a gallery that looks like stills from a film or spreads from a magazine, starring you.
What inspires you?
Modern love, real life, main characters. Cecilie Bahnsen, Rodarte, Simone Rocha. Desert landscapes, city skylines, exquisite hotels. Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, whatever’s playing on the seat-back aeroplane TV while we’re half asleep somewhere over the Atlantic. Brutalist architecture and Baroque interiors. Moodboards and playlists. International love affairs. Perfume! Happy tears, ugly crying, bad behaviour, the good life.
What motivates you to do what you do?
We figured out years ago that our superpower is freezing other people’s brilliance for posterity: we take pictures of you and your favourite people on your best days, in your best clothes, brimming over with joy, and then in those pictures you stay that way forever. Whatever happens the next day, or the next week, or 30 years later, you’re still frozen in perfect brilliance in your pictures.
How would you describe your working style?
You eat the cake, we'll make it art. You go down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass and create whatever wedding wonderland you like, then we join you there and make it last for all eternity.
We shoot in a documentary style with an editorial eye: we mostly just let the celebration unfold (all the better to capture candid shots of fleeting glances, bottom grabs, and dancefloor escapades) and document your style and decor details along the way. Then we step up with a little editorial direction for portraits to bring out the best in everyone, everywhere.
Do you shoot digitally, on film or both?
We both started out as kids with point-and-shoot 35mm cameras, then switched to digital when we grew into sensible, practical, professional adults. But now we shoot a mixture of the two and delight in getting the best of both worlds - the couples we collaborate with love film as much as we do, and everyone’s favourite shots are always the ones from the weird toy film cameras.
Do you have custom packages according to individual needs?
Every celebration’s unique. We design a bespoke proposal to cover exactly what each individual couple needs - engagement shoots, welcome dinners, all-night dance parties, morning-after brunches, etc.
Who is your dream client?
The unrepentant party starters bursting with main-character energy. The enthusiasts, the creatives, the instigators. The couples who have a vision and are excited to make it real. The ones who all their friends know would be of zero practical use during a zombie apocalypse but would keep around just for the impeccable vibes.
What is your advice to couples getting married?
It’s supposed to be fun. And it’s all yours: celebrate yourselves, your people, your places, your dreams - however you like, wherever you like.
댓글