By this time, most of you have heard about “trash the dress” bridal sessions, or TTD as they are known colloquially in the photographic community. In 2006 and early 2007, news of these crazy photo shoots was picked up by numerous news sources (including The New York Times and Good Morning America), with reporters typically casting bemused glances toward the photographers who chose to take photos of the recently wed swimming in lakes, frolicking in mud, covered in paint, or riding a Harley.

Wedding photographers around the world were (and still are) especially inspired by this trend after seeing photos that incited our imaginations and promised to fill our portfolios. Beautiful brides in Times Square! Newlyweds riding in the country, wedding gown trailing down the side of the horse! Brides floating in the ocean!

Brides themselves, these days well versed in the wide range of images offered by bridal magazines and photographers’ blogs, have seen it done. Brides read those articles in The New York Times and laughed, but we photographers knew that many of you secretly dreamed of another opportunity to wear your dress and get fabulous photos. (more…)

What a wonderful year of fearless bridal shoots for the JUXTAPOSITION project. Many thanks to all who followed through on their photo sessions and introduced me to wonderful new locations around Boston.

juxtaposition001 :: lindsey  [ link ] Worcester, Burncoat Middle School
juxtaposition002 :: tiffany [ link ] Boston Sand and Gravel, Chinatown
juxtaposition003 :: carol [ link ] the Fells, Winchester rail station
juxtaposition004 :: marilyn [ link ] George’s Island, Fanueil Hall
juxtaposition005 :: melissa [ link ] West Boylston, Old Stone Church
juxtaposition006 :: brittany [ link ] Frankin Park Zoo
juxtaposition007 :: sarina [ link ] L’Espalier, Newbury Street
juxtaposition008 :: kristen [ link ] Fenway Park, parking lot
juxtaposition009 :: deanna [ link ]  Canobie Lake Park (Salem NH)
juxtaposition010 :: gwen [ link ] Lanes ‘n’ Games, FACES, Alewife
juxtaposition011 :: colleen [ link ] Wellesley College parking garage, bathroom, cemetery
juxtaposition012 :: mikki [ link ] Boston North End
juxtaposition013 :: rachael [ link ] Salem MA waterfront
juxtaposition014 :: lindsay [ link ] Cambridge MA, Boston MA
juxtaposition015 :: sarah [ link ] Sudbury MA old grist mill
juxtaposition016 :: jill [ link ] Dover MA

And ummm… this dress-trashing session in NYC looks so perfect. I have always wanted to go to Coney Island for a shoot. Takers? And, if you need to convince your husband or anyone else why you’d want to do a shoot like that, just show him that crazy video. Pretty sure he’d be willing to take off work for that. Or, um, show this one. (Day-um stillmotion, you guys continue to amaze.)

I made it to the UK and have had two cups of proper tea today in order to adjust to the time difference. There are lots of things about this place that I love already!

But for now I wanted to leave you with two links.

1. Awhile back, Tiffany gave the juxtaposition sessions some great press by blogging about her session over at weddingbee. More to come soon. [link] I love press on this project! I really want a gallery show in November or January.

2. Last week I did a workshop with groundbreaking Las Vegas based photographer John Michael Cooper of Alt-F. Let’s just say he’s the guy who invented the idea of ‘trash the dress’ or what has morphed into my fearless bridals — as in, not limiting the dress to sit in a box forever without being properly commemorated. At the end of the workshop, we watched him do an art bridal shoot…. recreating [in the rain] the image of little red riding hood (look carefully in the right side foreground for the wolf, which was actually his dog). We then watched as he made a composite of about 10 images to bring his final product to life. Intense and stunning. And too much work for me! Also of great note is my backside prominently featured as I was photographing jmc doing the zipline swing halfway through the video at the bottom. [ link to blog post ]