About
“As time passes by and you look at portraits, the people come back to you like a silent echo.” -Henri Cartier-Bresson
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From first exchanged emails all the way to delivering your final images (and sometimes beyond), we are working to get to know you. It’s a unique and nuanced part of this career; we love it. It helps us create a more meaningful creative experience and produce true documentary images.
No couple, their love story, family, friends, experiences, or wedding is alike… and neither is the wedding photographer they bring to capture it all. So, with this little space, we’ll try to introduce ourselves to you. We hope this is the first step towards a blossoming friendship.
We are Maria and Ashley, a best friend fine art photojournalistic wedding and portrait photography team. We’re a fun and relaxed mixture of love, laughter, sarcasm, coffee, and creativity. We think we have the best job in the world, are willing to travel the planet for it, are all inclusive story tellers, and strongly believe love is love.
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The story of Iris and Echo:
Important to the creation of Iris and Echo is Maria’s education and background. She is a classically trained fine artist and portrait painter. She moves between the two realms of photography and painting fluidly. Each art form inspires and guides the process for the other. This is a large part of why our editing is done in house, by Maria, and is methodic and thorough. This is beyond a business. This is a passion.
She has her Bachelors of Fine Art from Rowan University and her Masters of Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art. She started photographing weddings many moons ago when she caught the eye of a bride in awe of her portrait work. It was love at first wedding and hasn’t stopped since. Years later, Maria saw Ashley’s photographic eye and creativity, bringing her on as second shooter. We have now been working together for many years and rebranded in 2018 to celebrate being a dynamic duet. Additionally, Ashley has become Iris and Echo’s in-house album designer.
Maria is also a proud adjunct professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (the first and oldest art museum and school in the United States) where she teaches photography, photography as it relates to painting, and visual storytelling!
While our background story is laced in creative passion, academia, and fine art, what makes us unique is our friendship and a deep love of what we do and those we do it for. Check out our behind the scenes and blooper reel by clicking on the photo of us below. <3 We make gorgeous images of couples in love but do it while having the time of our lives.
Come say hey! We’d love to get to know you!
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