Text and photography by Kevin Mullins

My role as a member of Kage is slightly different to the others. I'm a storyteller, sure, but almost all of my commercial storytelling comes within the framework of a wedding celebration.

Many of my contemporaries in this [wedding] industry place total importance, and perhaps rightly so, on technical skill and their ambition is driven by the perfect picture.

I'm less worried by all of that.
Sure, I understand Light, Composition and Moment make an award winning picture.
Sure, I understand a crop at a knee can add ambiguity to a frame.
Sure, I understand even a minuscule of blown out highlight will guarantee an image will never win an award.

I've had several epiphanies in my short life as a photographer; the epiphany that I don't need large cameras being one of the most prominent.

However, a long time ago I had another epiphany (of sorts). To a certain extent my work has always been about the non-technical. Its about humanity and humanities constituent parts; human interaction, love, laughter, silent contact, emotion......love.....love.....humanity.

Humanity
hjʊˈmanɪti

the quality of being humane; benevolence.
"he praised them for their standards of humanity and care"
synonyms: compassion, brotherly love, fellow feeling, humaneness, kindness, kind-heartedness, consideration, understanding, sympathy, tolerance, goodness, good-heartedness, gentleness, leniency, mercy, mercifulness, pity, tenderness, benevolence, charity, generosity, magnanimity

All of the images below have been assaulted by other photographers and judges, generally based on their technical mis-merits (and they are correct). They have each failed catastrophically in high level photographic competitions.

The truth is they are not technically great, but they were never going to be. If I was to stage these moments well, then, these moments would never have occurred. How sad would that be?

Light, composition, moment?
Moment first, for me, at least.