Today, weddingsonline welcomes Nathan and Tui Sigman of Sigman Photography, a husband-wife wedding, portrait and lifestyle photography team based in Mumbai. Artistic + Modern + Creative + Fun loving = Nathan & Tui! For past 15 years, they have been lucky to be involved with the Visual Arts and their work was recently featured in the Sony Bravia ad shoot as well. While Tui scouts and plans, Nathan absorbs, feels and experiences the moment. The result: a highly artistic, emotionally stunning, visually moving and photo-journalistic composition you will love. We have been looking forward to this interview for quite a while now and what this awe inspiring couple has to say:
1.Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you start Sigman Photography and the Center For The Visual Arts?
We met in San Francisco in graduate school in the Masters degree program for Photography. I (Nathan) focused in Fine Art and Mixed Media while Tui was focused in Documentary Photography. After our program we started teaching Photography in Ooty at Light and Life academy in India. We decided to move to Mumbai after two years of teaching there to hit the commercial scene with Sigman Photography and to teach our own Artistic ethic to budding artists at Center for the Visual Arts. We focus on the individuality of the student nurturing their own creativity while maintaining a strong fundamental technical and aesthetic education.
2. How would you describe your wedding photography style?
Since we both come from art school covering most artistic disciplines, we focus on the frame while constantly searching for those moments between moments that capture our clients memories for a life time.
3. Do you shoot film, digital or both?
We may be some of the last of a generation that understands film and studied it intensely. While we both learned photography dominantly using film, our transition to digital was seamless. Today most photographers have no idea where photography has come from in terms of the the camera’s development over the past century. Understanding Film and learning a slow and methodical artistic process forces the artist to know exactly what they are doing at every stage. Lets face it, just because you give an amateur a fancy camera doesn’t mean their images will be better. At the end of the day its the mind, body and soul that goes in to the vision that makes all the difference.
4. How is wedding photography different in India compared to that in the West?
Wedding Photography in India is one of the most challenging events you can take on as a photographer. You have so many functions and people to capture. Figuring out the most important people and moments during these events has been a long road to get used to; to anticipate and dictate when and what to shoot.
5. You guys are so creative in different mediums. What keeps you inspired?
Education and learning never stops. If an artist thinks their work is over when they graduate, then they will plateau, never really understanding their own creative potential. So reading about different artists and their approach, technology, and referring to the many great artists that preceded us so many years ago.
6. What do you enjoy about living and working in Mumbai?
Mumbai is thriving and that perpetual motion never ceases. It’s never a dull moment here which sometimes is a good thing and a bad thing.
7. Any advice for couples looking for their wedding photographer? One thing you’d like every couple to know before their wedding?
Don’t base your decision on the a pre-planned budget alone. The work of the photographer you choose should be different; not just the same thing over and over again and again. If you want your wedding to be captured artistically then allow the photographers to use their creativity. So many times families push the bide or groom to get something traditional and boring. Artistic doesn’t necessarily mean expensive or wild!
8. Does being a wedding photographer influence your overall photography style?
Not really. I think we both agree that Wedding Photography is it’s own genre, however, we do bring artistic concepts and creativity to the table from other genre’s that make the couple and events feel different. Any successful wedding photographer knows that telling the story of the couple is imperative to getting good results. So a balance between being a good story teller and how it’s visually represented is everything. If the couple and family keeps an open-mind, then working together is much easier, and as we can get to know our clients better, we are able to provide great memories for years to come.
9. There is no dearth of talent in this field. Can you name 5 top wedding photographers who inspire you or who you’d like to work with?
There are a lot of great photographers out there but I’d say my favourite wedding photographers would be Erika and Lanny Mann from Two Mann Studios in Alberta, Canada. Their ability to be the proverbial fly on the wall and document a wedding is remarkable. But more amazing than that, is their conceptual wedding shoot; just breath-taking and beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Their photographs will make you laugh, cry and make your jaw drop to the floor.
10. Could you list 3 of your best wedding images
11. Best advice you received as a wedding photographer and as an entrepreneur?
Top Down Selling, get the ‘meeting’ and have a good attitude.
12. Any new projects you are currently looking forward to? Any places you’d want to shoot a wedding, here and abroad?
We want to meet couples that aren’t afraid of themselves, their families and their community. We are interested in projects where the clients are open-minded to new and exciting ways of capturing their moments. We would love to do more destination weddings anywhere in the world.
To get in touch with Nathan and Tui, click here.
