Love, Love Me Do

While researching on today’s personality, I found a very long and comprehensive interview with Jose Villa. Since the interview is so recent, I shall direct you to the website rather than plagiarise. Here’s a few tidbits about the man.

Jose’s works stand out for their dreamy quality and magazine-like styling. Which would explain why he’s regularly featured on many of them including Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, Brides, Destination Weddings and Honeymoons, Instyle Weddings and more. He’s also a favourite of wedding bloggers and has accumulated accolades from professional photography associations.

You probably don’t realise this but Jose shoots entirely in film. There is little indulgence in taking multiple shots to get the right picture as production costs are high. On average, 800 shots are taken in a wedding and about 700 presented to the couple. When you consider the medium, that’s an amazingly high number.

Jose describes his style, “I’m trying to create images that have beautiful lifestyle elements, and also have some emotion to them.” It’s not photojournalism, it’s fine art. “I do capture moments, but I compose my shots. So, for instance, if I see something happening in front of me I’ll take the shot, but i compose it with a fine art perspective behind it. I am VERY aware of my backgrounds. I usually choose something with a white wall or use the sky. And I always utilize selective focus to achieve a true fine art image.”

Jose was born in Los Guerrero, Mexico and migrated to California at the age of 5. He picked up his first camera in high school and later studied at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Based out of Solvang now, “they have the best Danishes here”, it’s a picturesque Danish town in California. Initially scared that wedding photography would be too high pressure, Jose fell into it when he realised he could use the lifestyle/fashion approach that he had developed while interning with Marcy Malloy, a fashion photographer in San Francisco. It’s been 7 years now.

Jose is involved in a new book, Wedding Photography Unveiled, a collection of 20 top photographers’ techniques, philosophies, strategies, and practices.

All photos in this post are from Jose’s blog.