About Arjun

I don’t direct.
I pay attention.

Documentary wedding and portrait photographer. Three hundred weddings across two cities, and still no shot list.

Arjun, photographed – reluctantly – by his second shooter

The story

Two cities, one job

I grew up in Hyderabad and moved to London in 2012 for an engineering job I was perfectly adequate at. Then, at my cousin’s wedding back home in 2015, I watched the hired photographer stop the haldi – twice – to arrange people into rows. I borrowed an uncle’s camera and photographed what was actually happening. Those were the pictures everyone asked for afterwards.

Three hundred weddings later, that’s still the entire method. The day is already good – my job is to notice it. The glance between the vows. The aunt directing traffic. Your father checking his speech alone in the corridor. The things you’d miss because you were busy getting married.

The year splits in two: March to October in London, November to February in Hyderabad. It means a three-day Telugu pelli is home ground rather than an exotic booking – and a twenty-minute ceremony at Hackney Town Hall gets exactly the same attention.

300+ weddings · Since 2015 · London E2 & Banjara Hills · One wedding per weekend

On the day

You’ll mostly forget I’m there

Unobtrusive isn’t a personality trait – it’s a set of habits, practised for eleven years.

before you’re ready

I arrive early and quietly

Before the hair is finished and while the house still smells of breakfast. The getting-ready photographs are half the story, and the best ones happen before anyone notices the camera.

all day

I dress like a guest

No branded polo shirt, no photographer’s waistcoat. If your uncle can’t tell whether I’m from the groom’s side, that’s exactly right – people behave normally around someone who blends in.

first hour

I learn the names that matter

Your loudest cousin, the grandmother running the show, the friend who’ll cry first. I write them down on the planning call; by the first hour of the day I know them by sight.

during rituals

I never stop a ritual

Not for light, not for angles, not for anything. The pantulu garu, the vicar and the registrar all get the same promise – I work around the ceremony, never through it.

20 minutes

One posed list, done fast

The family groupings are agreed in advance and photographed in one twenty-minute burst. Then the camera goes back to watching, which is where it belongs.

last hour

I stay for the singing

The best photograph of the whole wedding usually happens after the schedule ends – when it’s just family left and someone’s uncle finds the microphone.

The gear

A humble paragraph about equipment

Two camera bodies, three lenses – a 35mm, a 50mm and an 85mm – and cards that duplicate every frame in-camera before your photographs land in three separate backups by the next morning. No drones, no lighting rigs, no assistant holding a reflector. In eleven years, nobody has ever looked at a photograph and asked what camera took it.

Kind words

What couples say afterwards

From couples and families across both cities – the kind of reviews a photographer only earns by staying out of the way.

Arjun photographed all three days and we never once heard “hold that pose”. The photo everyone cries at is my grandmother straightening Rohan’s sehra – none of us even saw him take it.
Priya & RohanThree-day wedding · Osterley Park & home
We got married at Hackney Town Hall in twenty minutes flat. He still found forty photographs we love – including one of my dad practising his speech alone in the corridor.
Sarah & TomRegistry wedding · Hackney Town Hall
Our daughter refused to sit still for a single frame. The gallery looks like our actual life – porridge, wellies and all – and my mum has already printed half of it.
The Kapoor familyPortrait session at home · Walthamstow
The sneak peek arrived while we were still at the airport – forty photos, thirty-six hours after the reception. My mother-in-law had them on the family group chat before we landed in Hyderabad.
Ayesha & ImranFull-day wedding · The City, London
We had a church ceremony and a pheras with two hours between them. Arjun treated both like the main event – my mum’s favourite photograph is her own mother laughing during the sermon.
Deepika & JamesTwo ceremonies, one day · Kew
Neither of us can point to a single moment we posed, and yet every photograph looks deliberate. Our florist asked for his number. So did two of the guests.
Daniel & MarcusFull-day wedding · Asylum Chapel, Peckham

Next

The rest is easier in person.

Twenty minutes on the phone tells you more than any website – including whether you actually like me, which matters more than people admit.

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020 7946 0821 · studio@arjunraophotography.co.uk
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