VANCOUVER — When Gillian Wells saw Leah Snyder's portrait of an Iranian man marrying a Japanese woman in a kimono, she knew she'd found the right wedding photographer.
"It jumped out for me," says Ms. Wells, referring to the interethnic couples featured in Ms. Snyder's online portfolio.
Ms. Wells, who is Caribbean-Canadian, says she was concerned that her Caucasian husband's light skin would be bleached out to capture her much darker features in their wedding photos. "I wanted someone who could produce the best prints considering our different skin tones," she says.
Ms. Snyder, a photographer living near Toronto, says she doesn't market her services based on flattering various skin colours - a technical skill she and other photographers say professionals should have.
Emily and Sarfaraz Hashmani hired a photographer who could capture her Protestant and his Mulism culture. (Leah Snyder)
But she has carved out a multicultural niche, and in the past few years, she says, "I've noticed much more of a demand." Interethnic marriages are on the rise in Canada. Marriages and common-law unions between a visible minority person and a member of a non-visible minority or different ethnic group increased by 30 per cent between 1991 and 2001, according to Statistics Canada (figures from the 2006 census will be released in the spring).
With an eye on this emerging market, specialized photographers are emphasizing their cross-cultural skills to couples who are planning something unique, rather than a typical Cinderella wedding.
Photographers such as Ms. Snyder research the symbolism of specific religious rituals and meet with in-laws to ask whether traditional photo compositions are desired.
They visit wedding sites with the couple and discuss how to represent their mixed heritages visually.
Carmen Schmid, a Vancouver photographer, says she has shot many Indian-Caucasian and Chinese-Caucasian weddings, and makes sure to represent them in her promotional materials.
Ms. Schmid encourages her clients to incorporate tangible symbols of their ethnic backgrounds in their wedding ceremonies, she says.
"Almost half of my clients are interracial couples," she says. "They do like the idea that I've already photographed that type of wedding."
She recently photographed a Chinese bride and first-nations groom who changed clothing three times.
First the woman dressed in white buckskin while he wore braids and feathers, then they both wore traditional Chinese wedding garments, followed by casual Western clothes.
Unconventional weddings are a boon for photographers, Ms. Schmid says. "It's great for your creativity."
That creativity is enlivening wedding magazines that are now showing a range of interethnic and interfaith couples.
The Canadian magazine Today's Bride doesn't have to go looking for photos submitted by ethnically diverse newlyweds, editor Bettie Bradley says. "I am amazed at the number of multifaith and multicultural weddings that are coming in."
For photographers, shooting an interethnic wedding involves far more than aesthetics, says Seshu Badrinath, a lens man based outside Hartford, Conn.
"It comes down to doing my homework in terms of their [cultural] backgrounds," he says. "I'm also prepared to do multiple-day weddings and unlimited hours."
Most of his clients are Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Jewish, he says, and about two-thirds are interfaith couples. "They're not looking for a cookie-cutter-type wedding photographer," he adds.
Finding a photographer willing to learn about distinct rituals was crucial, says Emily Hashmani, a Caucasian Protestant who married her Ismaili Muslim husband, Sarfaraz Hashmani, in Toronto last month. The couple had two ceremonies the same day, one at a church and one at a mosque.
Ms. Hashmani says she chose Ms. Snyder partly because the photographer had many interfaith clients. "She really took a lot of care to approach things from different angles to represent both our heritages," Ms. Hashmani recalls.
Ms. Snyder says her university background in religious and cultural studies and her travelling experiences have helped her put interethnic couples at ease.
"I'm really interested in the religious rituals of weddings," she says, adding that she will go to extra lengths to respect her clients' privacy.
Ms. Snyder mentions the case of a photo shoot just before the wedding reception of a Muslim bride who wore a hijab.
"She wanted me to take pictures of the first time she took off [the] hijab and her husband saw her," Ms. Snyder says, "but she wanted to make sure no one else would ever see the photos."
Unlike most wedding photographers, who derive much of their profit from reprint fees, Ms. Snyder agreed to destroy the negatives. "It was just a given," she says.
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