Photographer Interview - Marianne Chua
The photographers we get to work with at Post Partner are our biggest inspiration. They’re artists and friends and we want to share their talent with everyone. Today, we’re sharing an interview with Marianne Chua. Marianne Chua, voted the United Kingdom’s quirkiest photographer, became a favourite in the Post Partner studios quickly after we started working with her last year! Her images are full of personality and life, and we often see images of Marianne like the image below, doing whatever she can to get the shots she loves.
Make sure to take a look at Marianne here, and look her up on social media!
Q1. How many weddings do you shoot a year?
MC: I shoot an average of 40 weddings per year!
Q2. How do you stay excited about your work?
MC: I think the key is to make sure you are always shooting in exactly the way you like, whatever seems natural to you. Ignore the pressures of what’s currently popular or what you need to need to produce for blog features. If you feel there’s a shot you think would work, be bold and chase it down, there’s nothing more satisfying than nailing a shot you’ve conceived in your mind. Keep looking for new angles on the same subject, that’s the only way to find something fresh!
Q3. How do you channel that excitment or enery into your work?
MC: For my particular documentary style, I need to be very alert and aware of the present environment. I need to always be looking out for situations before they happen, so I put a lot of energy into constantly thinking and looking. During a wedding my brain is always churning over a ton of observations at once, and this produces the photos!
Q4. How do you incorporate new inspiration into the work you do?
MC: I must admit I try to stay away from looking at other wedding photographer’s work. Simply because I want my photos to be my own, and it’s impossible to not bring in shots you’ve seen before when you’re stuck for ideas in the moment. I do watch a lot of films and notice the way they frame moments, so I think those kind of compositions come into the way I shoot.
Q5. What inspires you the most?
MC: Films, especially directors with purposeful symmetry! Otherwise I would say my clients are the ones that inspire me. I don’t think my work would be what it is without the couples having the perfect attitude that I look for; fun, laidback and adventurous.
Q6. If you could give a photographer one piece of advice, what would it be?
MC: Stay true to yourself. Keep doing you!
Q7. Top 3 interesting facts about Marianne Chua?
MC:
1. I’m a Doctor with a PhD
2. My cameras are named after Wes Anderson (for his style) and Beatrix Potter (for her philanthropy)
3. I used to be a competitive swimmer so I’m most at home in a warm sea! That’s why I want to shoot an underwater wedding ceremony so bad!
We love you Marianne! Thanks for letting us work alongside you! So excited to see all the thing you do and the images you create this year!
