Chic Vendor Spotlight | Jami Saunders Photography

What do you get when you take a husband and wife with a passion for photography, art , design, New York, love {and each other}? Add a dash of philanthropic spirit a mound of talent and an endless flow of creativity and you're left with infinitely fabulous Jami Saunders Photography. From dashing engagement shoots, stunning wedding photography, to a non-profit organization spawned from a modest collection of striking images - at Jami Saunders they love what they do and it certainly shows.
We were recently thrilled by the opportunity to pick the brains of the brilliant minds behind Jami Saunders Photography. Take a moment to get acquainted with Jami Saunders and prepare to feel delightfully inspired...

Merci: We are huge fans of Jami Saunders photography. Can you tell us about the masterminds behind the lens?
Jami: We are a husband and wife team who spend most of our waking and dreaming days talking about, thinking about, or living with any combination of photography, art, design, and love. There isen't too much we do that is outside of that.

Merci: We heard a little rumor at Merci, that Jami Saunders Photography shares our loving obsession with New York. Please, gush away...
Jami: We spent many many years in Brooklyn and this summer we moved back into the city... and have fallen totally in love with New York all over again. I would say we are both in the honeymoon stages and basically share our relationship with this third party {New York} now! Ha! Being able to spend time with couples during their engagement shoots, their weddings, and their anniversary shoots, and sharing that love of the city with the love between people is pretty freaking cool.

Merci: Now that we've got that out of the way, tell us a bit about your approach to photography. What makes Jami Saunders unique?
Jami: We are modern and minimal with a hint of quirk. We make creative decisions to keep the focus on our couples, and to give them images that are timeless visual celebrations that they can look back on for years to come. We make efforts to create an environment that allows spontaneous and real moments to unfold, and then we are there to capture it. Andrew is also a modern furniture designer, and I come from a background in psychology. I think our photography speaks to that.

Merci: Why weddings?
I have been shooting professionally since 2003, but only began to focus on weddings a few years ago. I have always photographed people and children and was doing weddings more on the side than as my main focus. There is a funny attitude towards 'wedding photographers' within the commercial photography world and for a while I was sort of 'secretly' doing weddings. But once I realized, hey, I really LIKE this. I like the people, I like the connection, I like the relationship with each client. And I don't have to be the typical 'wedding photographer' that one imagines. Once I realized it all so clearly, I stopped secretly shooting weddings, created an entire website and brand devoted to it, and have never looked back.

Merci: What's it like to be one half of a husband and wife photography team?
Jami: Andrew started shooting with me not long after we met over four years ago. I really loved the perspective he brought to it. He's a fun guy, doesn't take things too seriously, but has an artistic eye like no other. We are starting our fourth season now. We stay in contact with our previous couple who are now having babies and growing families and it feels like a big family for us. I actually can't believe how much sense it all seems to make now. I can't imagine doing anything else.

Merci: Jami Saunders photographs reflect a great deal of depth and personality; What inspires the brand?
Jami: I'd say we draw inspiration from life outside of wedding photography. After all, wedding photography is about life and specifically a very particular moment that makes up our lives, the wedding day. I'm inspired by families, by relationships, by a longing glance, watering eye, a wink. I'm fascinated by these moments that make up our lives that we might not see until someone (us) captures it and records it for us to relive over and over. I feel so lucky to be invited to each wedding we photograph. It's a very personal moment and we never take that for granted.

Merci: And in your spare time you "shoot for a good cause." How has Jami Saunders married a passion for photography with a philanthropic penchant?
Jami: We spent our honeymoon at an orphanage in Nepal with 41 amazing children in February 2010. We said that when we came back to the States we would have a small photo show of our images taken during the trip to raise money for the orphanage. Fast forward two years later. We now have a nonprofit called Kids of Kathmandu. We have raised over $55,000 which allowed us to move all the children from a poorly preforming government school to a private school with after school tutoring.

We are currently planning our next event called The enLIGHTen Project where we will commission lighting designers to build lights that we will auction off at our event in May. Proceeds will go towards solar panels in Nepal. Kids of Kathmandu has allowed us to use our photography, design, and love of people in a different way which we are so grateful for. See a video from our latest trip there in November 2011. www.kidsofkathmandu.org

All photos courtesy Jami Saunders Photography