JWiley Photography
Why do you want to work with APW Couples?
In the last couple years I've been so incredibly fortunate to meet the couples I've worked with through APW. I can't even express how happy it makes me to be part of their wedding day. APW couples are so grounded, gracious, compassionate, and really understand their wedding day and wedding plans within a larger global context. Keeping perspective about everything is the best way to approach most significant things in life, a wedding day included. Which is not to say we don't all go a little crazy sometimes. I just always try to see the humor in the crazy to keep myself and the people around me sane.
Describe your artistic approach to weddings?
My goal is always to capture the emotion of the day first. The connection that couples have, and especially the way they look at each other is what really makes a wedding unique. I also find that some of the most beautiful moments of a wedding day are those "in between" moments that often happen when the couple is alone, when no one else is looking, and when nothing particularly memorable is happening; couples have a chance to just breathe, and really see each other and just BE together. That's what I really want to capture in a photo. (And since I tend to be unobtrusive and very sneaky, I catch a lot of these moments.) I also don't think that your wedding day needs to be a full-blown photo shoot. I like taking some "artsy" shots in cool locations, but mostly I just want to follow you around and document the emotion of what's happening on your wedding day.
What are your non-work-related hobbies?
I guess you could say my main hobby is figuring out what makes people tick. My academic background involved studying the biology & sociology of "human mating behavior," so I spend a lot of time talking to my friends about dating & sex while telling myself it's "research." I'm also fascinated with Myers-Briggs personality profiling as a tool to explain why people like what they like and do what they do. I think understanding biology, sociology, and psychology together is really useful in explaining people's patterns but also allows you to appreciate the fundamental differences between people in a totally non-judgmental way. Also! I swing dance, I love my kitteh, I take pointless road trips, and even when I'm not getting paid to take photos I take photos.
(And if watching embarrassingly bad reality TV counts as a hobby you can add that to my list.)
What's your favorite book?
**Warning! Contains spoilers!**
Jane Eyre. I can't begin to tell you how much I love this book. Well, mainly I love that character. She's introspective, she's a feminist, she's articulate, she's got the attention of this really eccentric kind of ugly dude....what's not to love? She's all like "I'm super quiet and observe the world around me and live in my head. But even though I seem withdrawn I'm actually totally present and assessing all the interpersonal dynamics in my life, and I'm passionate about not losing myself to this guy who talks a big game because he's compensating for hiding his crazy wife in the attic." Well she doesn't know the last part.
But man, she's awesome.
