When it comes to high-profile weddings, few names resonate with as much grace and creative precision as Studio Rossini. Based in Rome, the studio’s founders bring years of experience from fashion and advertising into the world of wedding photography — most recently, capturing the magical union of actress Rebel Wilson and her partner Ramona Agruma.
We sat down with them for an exclusive interview about photographing one of the most talked-about celebrity weddings of the year, balancing privacy with artistry, and why print photography still holds a timeless place in a digital world.
First of all, congratulations on photographing Rebel Wilson’s wedding! How did you approach such a high-profile event?
High-profile weddings have usually one thing in common, the fact that the couple is made of two extremely busy people. As a photographer, you need to understand that your clientele will probably never ever have the time to properly study the wedding photography market in order to choose you the way you might like to be chosen: find you, fall in love with you, and hire you. It is not for a lack of interest, it’s just that these couples have an extremely busy life and cannot put the effort or cut the extra time for the research. They will, however, ask about the best options in terms of wedding photography, and they will rely on the ones who they hired to make their dream wedding come to life: their wedding planners. Building strong relationships with top wedding planners for us has been key to access high profile events.
Approaching high-profile events is very similar to approaching an advertising campaign or fashion editorial for a major brand, a business we are actually very involved in with our studio in the center of Rome. When shooting for an important brand first of all you have to prepare, work on their brief, craft moodboards, and make sure that you share a vision and understand their expectations and desired output in detail before the actual shoot. Secondly, and more importantly, it doesn’t matter what happens, how many changes of the timing or how unforeseen some of the requests that might emerge will seem, you need to be able to go with the flow, say yes, and deliver. This requires experience, practice, the right gear, and the will to always go the extra mile (with a smile and positive energy!). When asked for what might seem a nearly impossible shot, don’t explain why you can’t take it, but ask for what you need in order to make it happen, no matter how excessive it may sound to you. We’ve seen our share of expensive and excessive things happening on brand advertising sets to know that if the high-profile client has really put his mind into the shot, nothing will stop him from having the photographer getting it.
How would you describe your artistic vision when working with celebrities?
As artists, we like to believe that our artistic vision is not affected by the clientele. The photography style we use, however, is always adapting to the specific client. This is also something we learned shooting advertising and editorials for major brands during the years. While in the wedding industry you sometimes find photographers who specialize in a style, in fashion and advertising photography you are expected to master many styles (if not all), and still to bring your own unique vision to the set.
Celebrities, in this respect, are a bit like a brand: they want you to bring your artistic vision the set, as long as you respect the product, its history and heritage, and to understand how the client wants the products to be perceived by the public. Every celebrity has a history, sometimes even a heritage, and they all have extremely clear in mind how they want to be perceived. When working with celebrities, like with brands, we do our homework: we look at the latest productions they were involved in, whether they are movies, editorials, interviews, or tv shows and try to understand what the narrative is, what they want to communicate.
During the wedding day we try to make that narrative emerge in our shots. We can say that celebrities’ preferred shots are the ones in which that narrative really stands out.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while shooting this particular wedding, given the exclusivity and high expectations surrounding it?
Timing, privacy, discretion. The exclusivity and the high expectations always tend to mess up the timing due to unexpected events happening. The high-profile of the clients made privacy a primary issue, and we always had to be aware of how and what we were shooting.
The exclusivity of the venue imposed us to be exceptionally discrete, in order not to upset any of the wedding and hotel guests. We have been asked last minute to stay an extra day in Porto Cervo in order to select, with Rebel & Ramona, the best photos to send to Vogue. Paparazzi unexpectedly grabbed some snapshots of the wedding ceremony from a boat far out at sea and we had to change plans and re-adapt quickly in order to deliver on time. We learned from working on advertising and editorial productions to actively readapt the agenda and the approach to be aligned with the production managers and the executive producers, so that we can be sure to deliver no matter what. It is possible only if you work as a player instead of as a solo artist.
Weddings are emotional and deeply personal events. Is there a specific moment you always look forward to capturing? And was there a standout moment at Rebel Wilson’s wedding?
Our favorite moment in a wedding are the bridal portraits, right after she steps into her dress. She might be nervous, but that energy made of expectations and eagerness to finally live the wedding day as a spouse entangles so deeply with that perfect makeup, classy hairstyle and gorgeous dress that at the end the beauty the bride propagates creating a magical and unique moment. And we know that those photos will be among the best we can get on the day.
The same applied, but doubled, at Rebel and Ramona’s wedding, because two were the brides! We distinctively remember the moment just before and after their first look signed the capture of the iconic photos of the day.
Photographing celebrities often comes with strict privacy guidelines. How do you balance artistic freedom with respecting the couple’s wishes and privacy?
The most important thing is to immediately start working on those guidelines, as you call it, already at the time of the preparation of the custom proposal. When working with celebrities it is crucial to have the conversation about the use of the final photos as soon as possible.
Many will start asking for a complete NDA, but usually with the proper time and attention we can get to an agreement where we will work together on a publication and have the use of the published photos. It is all about understanding that the couple has the right to feel strongly about privacy, but also that if they are reassured they will have the control over any use of the images and that we understand the importance of this level of control in their life, then they will most probably be actually happy to share the good publicity that comes out of a joined publication on a magazine.
Fravero ProPhoto is proud to support professionals like you. How does having the right equipment impact your ability to capture breathtaking wedding moments?
The right equipment is the one that doesn’t stand between you and the shot you are trying to take. There is no need to have the new hot tools every year, but what you are using needs to be more than enough to take any shot you might think of during the wedding day.
In our case, this translates into fast autofocus with seamless continuous shooting, fast recharging flashes powerful enough to override the sunlight if needed, an excellent zoom lens to play with different perspectives, and a drone small enough to be able to fly anywhere it’s legally possible. Then you add the “fashion tools” like umbrellas, backdrops, film, and props, with which you can expand your creative options. Digital is key because you will have to deliver super fast. But, of course, we also add drone and 35mm film to the mix.
At the end we are talking about quite a few bags of equipment, plus, obviously, the back-ups. This is why you need to minimum be in three, better in four photographers, at celebrity weddings, even if the number of guests is not that big.
You’ve worked on many luxury weddings. How do celebrity weddings differ from traditional ones in terms of planning, logistics, and creative freedom?
The main difference is the level of uncertainty in the timeline. Rarely you have the opportunity to discuss timing in detail with the celebrity couple, so usually you make decisions with the wedding planning team. Not having structured the planning with the couple often means that the celebrity can unexpectedly make decisions that don’t respect the timeline of the day (which probably they never even had the time to read!) without being aware of the impact this may have on their photos. The make-up or hairstyle might take more than expected on any wedding, but with celebrities this risk is generally higher due to a stricter control on the result. Guests might be late more than usual, due to the fact they are busier than common people.
Any of these things will affect the original timeline, and usually it is the couple session which will pay the cost. This is why, with celebrities, we must work together with the wedding planners in preparing a timeline that has enough buffer to cope with at least a couple of unexpected events. The risk of not having time for the couple photos must be avoided at any cost. However, if this happens, you must be able to maximize the few minutes you have available and, nevertheless, take the “money shot” that will make the magazine cover. High energy, constant adaptability and creative lucidity are key to nailing a celebrity wedding.
In a digital era, why do you believe print photography – is still so important for preserving memories?
I (Luca) come from the analogue era. Throughout the high school and the university studies I had a small darkroom where I would develop and print my b&w photos on a weekly basis. I learned the analogue postproduction, when every print was a unique, and for me a photo still reaches the end of its cycle only when it is printed and handled. This is why we take extreme care into choosing the right partners when it comes to printing our couples’ photos and binding their photo books.
We didn’t choose Fravero because you are in fashion, we chose you because you are great 🙂
Looking back at Rebel Wilson’s wedding, is there one image or series of photos that perfectly encapsulates the day’s emotions?
The first look shots are surely our favorites, and that’s because we love bridal portraits and first looks. But we feel that the shots that really encapsulate the vivacity, glamorousness and true love of the day are the ones of the two brides walking out of the ceremony. The brides are so much in love, their daughter is so sweet, the guests are so happy, and the venue looks so amazing that the shots truly look as if they are coming from a romantic movie. One starring Rebel Wilson, off course.
Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring wedding photographers who dream of working with high-profile clients?
Get ready to work on high demanding sets with constantly changing timelines and never enough time. Be sure to have the right attitude: high energy, always positive, problem solving. Then learn to be proactive, never explaining why a request is impossible but explaining what you need to get the shot. And be sure, if you get what you asked, to be able to capture the shot.
Then, and only then, find the wedding planners who are working with celebrities, and introduce yourself. We recently hired a talented photographer to work along our side as a third shooter on a high-profile wedding. He had a proper chance to observe us working during the whole day.
At the end of it, he told us that the most important thing he had learned that day was that he was far from ready to work, as a primary photographer, on such high-profile weddings. He was not ready to sustain such a level of stress and constant re-planning without fearing it would clash on his technique and aesthetic vision. These are the sort of weddings which can trust or crush your studio’s growing path.
Our suggestion would be: take the risk only when you feel ready, and when you do, don’t hold back but dive in.
