The Grace Tales; family photographer, London

It was my absolute pleasure to photograph jewellery designer Carolina Bucci, and her gorgeous boys Lucas and Julius, for The Grace Tales this summer.

I love having the opportunity to do editorial shoots and family photography at the same time. We came up with a range of images to use in The Grace Tales, some directed and others which were more documentary photography. I felt that the majority of the portraits looked better in black and white tones, and have noticed that I’m becoming more and more in love with black and white photography recently. A lot of my favourite photographers such as Sally Mann and Vivian Maier used black and white film predominately in their work, and I have always loved the way monochromatic tones show how light wraps around faces so beautifully. Whilst at school I would shoot mainly on black and white film, and one of my earliest photography projects entailed a day in the life of my family at home. These images of my little sister pouring tea from a teapot and my mother running around outside in the autumn leaves are all like dear old friends to me. The fact that they are taken and developed by me on black and white film adds to their uniqueness; these images are my treasures. Now that I use a digital camera, I still see my subjects and their relation to the light in the same way and still shoot in manual mode, and all my images are carefully developed in my signature style using a lightroom (computer) rather than a darkroom, in which astonishing film tones and textures are emulated.

If you would like a similar family photography session, with predominantly black and white images, then do contact me for details as I’d love to hear from you.

Check out the website to read more about Carolina’s take on juggling motherhood and running a successful and creative business… http://thegracetales.com/the-tale-of-carolina-bucci-lucas-julius-pyner/