Bradley Hanson Photography

Price Range $3500 - $12000

Description

BRADLEY HANSON: BIO

My connection to photography began at age 10 when my parents brought back a beautiful Voigtlander Vitomatic camera from Germany. This little silver box was magic to me. Upon receiving my first roll of film back from the lab, I was instantly addicted to the alchemy of light coming through glass, hitting plastic film and becoming an image through a specific recipe of chemicals. A few years later, I began printing in the darkroom when I was the photographer for my high school newspaper and yearbook. I studied the photography of the Magnum Agency masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka and Elliott Erwitt, but it was buying the Ralph Gibson “Tropism” at the Walker Art Center bookshop in 1988 that immediately electrified my imagination about the compositional and emotional energy of black and white imagery. I started photograping head shots for model portfolios and for promotional portraits and cover images for musicians, then shooting for the Seattle weekly papers, shooting everything from city council meetings and mayoral press conferences to restaurant reviews and local human interest stories. It was through these experiences that I realized I love photographing people.

I landed my first wedding in Seattle in 1999 somewhat by accident. After a couple loved the portraits I made for them, they asked if I would shoot their wedding. Since 1999, I have been a professional photographer serving in Minneapolis, MN, Seattle, WA and international destinations. While weddings are my first love, I also apply my style to portraits, promotional images, live music, commercial and editorial work for a number of clients and publications.

Vendor Profile - Bradley Hanson

Bradley Hanson

Timeless, classic documentary style weddings all over the world since 1999.

FAQs

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER?

After getting my start with portraits and model portfolio work in the mid 1990s, I photographed my first wedding in 1999, and have personally photographed 600 weddings all over the world in the 21 years since then. Wow, that happened quickly. I now have a callus on my shutter button finger the size of a Buick. OK, it's not that big. I guess it’s not really a callus. In 2002, I photographed 55 weddings, averaging 3 per weekend during peak season. While I definitely enjoyed them all and loved the immersion into doing what I love, that was far too many for a substantive, rewarding personal life. Now I try to limit myself to 15 weddings a year so I can give clients my full attention and lead a real life hanging out with my family, being a parent, seeing movies and traveling.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY?

When I was 10, I got a camera from my parents, a beautiful silver Voigtlander with a normal lens that they brought back from Germany. I was immediately hooked. I bought my first camera on my own with my first job, a Minolta X-700 with a 50mm lens, when I was about 15. Immediately the next year, when I was 16, I was my high school yearbook photographer and I shot for the school paper. This gave me my first experience in the darkroom and developing film. I then took some college classes in photography to use their darkroom. At age 24, I worked in a professional photo lab in Minneapolis, I photographed model portfolios, images for album covers and live music, and later was a freelance photographer for the two weekly papers in Seattle covering news stories, live music, political candidates, restaurant reviews and whatever else they wanted me to photograph. I lived in Seattle for nearly 13 years and had a studio there in the Pioneer Square neighborhood downtown, right next to the lovely Elliott Bay Bookstore (the basis for the cafe in the TV series “Frasier”). I loved taking landscapes because it was a peaceful, solitary activity. I started taking portraits, model head portfolios and band promotional photos, as well as images for album covers. My first wedding in 1999 came from a portrait client, and it snowballed from there.

WHAT IS YOUR STYLE?

This one is just as difficult for photographers as it is for musicians. My work has been referred to as "cinematic," "documentary style" and "wedding photojournalism" as I act in the role of observer rather than director. I think a more useful answer would be to elaborate about my approach to photography. I see photographs in everything. I am always looking at light and carry a camera with my all day everyday. Unless I'm swimming, of course. Although I am by nature a very social person, I try to be as discreet and invisible as possible. I don't direct the action: I observe and wait for specific moments. I am drawn to beautiful light and strong compositions. I have a background in graphic design that also helped shape the way I shoot. I operate under the assumption that being photographed is really weird and uncomfortable for most people. I know it is for me. I find that my clients value seeing beautiful images of things that really happened rather than situations manufactured or staged by the photographer. Most of the time, I begin photographing you getting ready, which gets you used to being photographed and allows me to disappear into the background for the rest of the event. The highest compliment I can receive is "How did you get all these? I don't even remember seeing you!" What you are saying when you hire a photographer is "I like your style. Please take photos like these at my wedding

WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHERS?

Ralph Gibson, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Anton Corbijn, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, Sebastiao Salgado, Ernst Haas, Harry Gruyaert, Saul Leiter, Alex Webb, Andre Kertesz, Bill Brandt, David Alan Harvey, Rene Burri, Martine Franck, Garry Winogrand, Sam Abell, Marc Ribaud, Robert Doisneau, Antonin Kratochvil, Michael Kenna, Michael Crouser, Harold Feinstein, William Eggleston, Fred Herzog, Martin Munkacsi, Don McCullin, James Nachtwey, Fan Ho, Stephen Shore, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Lee Friedlander, Gerard Uferas, William Klein, Chien-Chi Chang, Guy Le Querrec, Richard Kalvar, Constantine Manos and most of the Magnum photographers. I am also deeply inspired by cinematographers. My list of favorite movies would be far too long to list here, but my two favorite cinematographer is Bruno Delbonnel, best known for the French films "Delicatessen," "Amelie," "City Of Lost Children," "Micmacs," and "A Very Long Engagement." I also love cinematographer Roger Deakins, who is best known for his work with the Coen Brothers, including "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Barton Fink," "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski," "Millers Crossing," "Raising Arizona," and most notably, the high contrast black and white of "The Man Who Wasn't There."

WHERE HAVE YOU PHOTOGRAPHED WEDDINGS? DO YOU TRAVEL?

Most of my weddings now are in the Minneapolis/St Paul area and the Seattle/Tacoma area. My first travel wedding was November 3, 2001, to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, way down on the Pacific side of Mexico. Some people know that name because it was the final location mentioned in the movie "Shawshank Redemption." After that, I've photographed destination weddings all over the world, including Bali-Indonesia, Hong Kong-China, Udaipur-India, Bangkok-Thailand, Seoul-Korea, Zihuatanejo-Mexico, Honolulu-Hawaii, Washington DC, Anchorage-AK, Vancouver-BC, Portland-OR, Sun River-OR, Seattle-WA, Tacoma-WA, Orcas Island-WA, Spokane-WA, Fargo-ND, Sioux Falls-SD, Spillville-IA, La Crosse-WI, Minneapolis-MN, St. Paul-MN, Duluth-MN, Chicago-IL, New York-NY, Burlington-VT, Atlanta-GA, Phoenix-AZ, Napa-CA, Sonoma-CA, Fremont-CA, Palm Springs-CA, Palo Alto-CA, Berkeley-CA, Carmel-CA, Los Angeles-CA, San Diego-CA, Sausalito-CA and San Francisco-CA.

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