The photographer
Twelve years.
Two hundred and forty
weddings.
Based between Vancouver and Medellín. Available everywhere a great story is happening.
How this started
In 2003, I was twelve years old and pointing a video camera at everything. Not because I knew what I was doing — I didn’t — but because I couldn’t stop. I made vlogs before the word existed. I edited on Windows Movie Maker. I posted them where three people watched, one of whom was me.
By 2006 I was shooting video game commercials in a rented studio, which is either the origin story of a creative career or a long detour, depending on when you’re reading this. I learned about light the way you learn about anything worth knowing: by failing at it, repeatedly, until you stop failing.
The stills came in 2010. Ottawa in January, -20°C, a borrowed Nikon D7100 pointed at the street. I don’t remember the specific frame that changed things. I remember the feeling of seeing what the camera saw and understanding, for the first time, that a still photograph could hold more of a moment than video ever would. Video moves through time. A photograph stops it. I wanted to stop it.
I built the film account @arman.35mm and shot my way through Ottawa, then Toronto, then everywhere I could get to. In 2014, a friend asked me to photograph her wedding. I said yes before I knew if I was ready. I was, mostly. I shot 480 frames. I delivered 380. She cried when she saw them. That was it for me.
Two hundred and forty weddings later, I know exactly what I am doing and exactly why. In 2023, a fibromyalgia diagnosis forced a break I didn’t choose. I spent months not shooting, which is a particular kind of difficult for someone who sees that way. When I came back to it, something had clarified.
A wedding is a spiritual ceremony. I treat it like one. The photographs I make are not a service — they are a permanent document. They are what remains when memory starts to soften, when the faces of the people who were there start to blur in the telling. They are the proof. I take that seriously in a way I couldn’t have at thirty-two.
“The photographs exist to outlast the photographer.”
Destination Wedding Photographer
Arman
The approach
Two modes, one day
I shoot in two modes simultaneously, and I always have. The first is editorial and film-inspired: deliberate, directorial, producing images that look like stills from a film you wish existed. The second is documentary: quiet, present, unobtrusive — the laugh between the vows, the father finding the wrong pocket for the ring, the flower girl asleep under the reception table at 9pm.
Both go into the album. That is the philosophy. Not one or the other — both, always, because a wedding deserves both the beauty you planned and the beauty you couldn’t.
The editorial work happens in motion. We move through the venue, the gardens, the surrounding light, and I work fast and with intention — setting up the scene, giving a handful of purposeful cues, then stepping back and letting the real emotion surface. I directed commercials and corporate films before I photographed weddings. That background means I know how to build energy quickly, and how to disappear when the energy is already there.
I am based between Medellín and Vancouver, which means I am already close to most of the destinations people want most. For the rest of the world, I come to you, and my travel is included.
The practice
What I bring to every wedding
Presence
I arrive early and stay late. I blend in. I don't announce shots or gather people. I watch for what's happening and I'm already there when it does.
Bilingual coordination
I am conversational in Spanish, which matters in Colombia, Mexico, and at mixed-family weddings anywhere. Communication with vendors and venues runs better when I can speak directly.
Light literacy
The best image from your wedding will come from light you didn't know was there. I know where to find it, at what hour, in what direction. This is the skill that doesn't show in the work — it shows in what the work looks like.
Contingency planning
I carry backup bodies, backup lenses, backup everything. In 12 years I have never missed coverage due to equipment failure.
How I work
The experience
Connection First
I only work with couples I genuinely connect with. A call before anything is signed.
Engagement Session
Included in most collections: a chance to feel ease in front of the lens before your day.
Your Wedding Day
I arrive. I blend in. I watch. The day is entirely yours. I am the quiet witness who holds its memory.
The Delivery
Within 6 to 8 weeks: a private gallery designed to make you feel it all over again.
Ready to begin?