LGBTQ Salem MA Summertime Proposal - Derby Wharf Light Station

Summer is in full swing here in New England. Jack and Nif hit me up to photograph them in Salem on Friday the 13th at the Derby Wharf Light Station. With all the rain we’ve been getting, I was crossing my fingers for good light.

Boy, did we luck out. A cloudless day with long golden-hued shadows stretching along the shore and the rocks. Nif got down on one knee and proposed to Jack, who then did the same. Photographing queer couples is such a joy; I barely have to pose them at all, because they’re all madly in love and obsessed with each other.

I feel like before a photoshoot, there’s almost this skepticism; I get questions a lot like “what is your approach to posing couples?” and I always struggle with that response. I can pose people, sure. I’ve been doing this half my lifetime, now. 17 years. But most of the time with my clients, it’s enough that they’re simply together. They look happy because they’re in love. I put them in each other’s orbit and the tension melts away because they’re with their person, in a place that’s special to them, celebrating their relationship. And then I just focus on taking a rad picture of that.

The rest falls into place.

With everything happening in the country right now aimed at stripping away our rights to Be and to Love, I feel more connected with this medium now more than ever. It’s more than just a niche within the wedding industry. It’s a mission to capture and immortalize our existence.

We exist. We love. And we are loved.