RF Wedding of the Week: A "Moving Image" Same-Sex Wedding by Kirra Cheers

October 22, 2014

By Laura Brauer

Kirra Cheers—one of our favorite Aussies living in New York, co-founder of The Brooklyn Collective and a 2013 Rising Star—always keeps it fresh and interesting, both in wedding photography and beyond.

Her blog Tempting Alice is a wonderful creative outlet for her artistic side, and her black-and-white, first-date photo project, Tinderella, had those of us  who’ve experimented with online dating saying, “Yeah, girl. I get you.”

Cheers sent us this super-unique wedding at The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, that she had to share with us — and thus we had to share with you.

All images © Kirra Cheers

All images © Kirra Cheers

bestweddingever-4 bestweddingever-5“Was it a wedding? Was it a broadway show? Was it an art exhibition?” wrote Cheers in her blog post about the day. “It was neither, but all of the above at the same time. A celebration of all that is Brian & David. An expression of where they have come from and who they are as individuals and as a couple.”

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bestweddingever-12Cheers says the venue was like wonderland for a wedding photographer. “I loved the colors, the setting, the styled rooms, the people, the humor, the creativity. I love that they curated all the screens and that the guests were free to roam the building and explore.”

bestweddingever-13 bestweddingever-14bestweddingever-71bestweddingever-72bestweddingever-68 bestweddingever-15While photographing in a darkish museum is a huge, new challenge, Cheers saw it as a positive. “I felt this played to my strengths and let me indulge an aggressive use of on-camera flash that is becoming a key component of my style,” she says. “There was no set time for portraits; as a photographer who favors candid imagery, this was pretty much my dream, but it presents a whole new set of challenges, and I was conscious of capturing enough photographs of them together.”

bestweddingever-20 bestweddingever-22 bestweddingever-25 bestweddingever-28 bestweddingever-29 bestweddingever-30 bestweddingever-31 bestweddingever-35To do this, Cheers primarily shot with a Nikon D800, 35mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, SB-900 Speedlight with remote triggers and (“my personal favorite,” she says) the Gitzo traveller tripod. “I like to keep my kit simple,” Cheers says. “Good photography stems from a developed eye and unique vision and not how many toys you carry in your bag.”

bestweddingever-41 bestweddingever-44 bestweddingever-46 bestweddingever-48 bestweddingever-50 bestweddingever-52 bestweddingever-53 bestweddingever-55 bestweddingever-57As for the couple, Cheers says David and Brian already had a lifetime of memories together, and the wedding was a celebration of their journey. “Both are supportive of the other but in entirely different ways,” she says. “It was the perfect example of how a partner should lift you up and bring you back down to earth.”

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bestweddingever-65 bestweddingever-38See more of Cheers’ work on her website, and follow her on Instagram @temptingalice.

Want to submit a Wedding of the Week? Email Jessica Gordon.