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Field notes · Wedding

Two in the Surf

The morning after the wedding, the two of them walked into the sea before breakfast. I was on the beach with a coffee and a long lens.

Two swimmers waist-deep in turquoise surf
Photograph by Nick Page

Nobody plans the morning after. The guests sleep, the venue is being taken apart and the couple, if you are lucky, does something ordinary. These two swam.

I had come down to photograph the empty tables. The tables are in the album too, but this is the picture the album opens on.

From the sand

The frame is the two figures, the wave coming in and the colour of the water, which needed no help. I never went closer than the towels.

Couple walking hand in hand along the shoreline
The evening before, the walk along the tide line after the ceremony. Photograph by Vitor Monthay.

The album has a rule I keep for every wedding: the last picture is from the day after. It is the one nobody expects, and the one they look at longest.

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