Principal photographer Steven E. Gross takes a candid approach to traditional nuptials. Gross studied Photography at Columbia College and started Real Life Weddings in 1995. He shoots in a documentary style, capturing the day in timeless black and white while possessing a unique style and energy. Gross' creative approach to wedding photography has caught the eye of ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, Fox TV, Esquire and numerous other publications, nationally and abroad.

About Steven

I met Steven Gross the way most people meet him: on the business end of his Leica in a barrage of flashing lights. It was a wedding in Chicago, and everybody was having a smashing time. But nobody was having as much fun as Steven, holding the flash high overhead and the camera stiff-armed out to the side (he don’t need no stinking viewfinder), whirling among the dancing couples like a guerrilla mambo king. He prowls. Then he pounces.

And I remember saying what everybody says when they watch Steven work: who IS that guy?

Steven is a wedding photographer because he adores photographing weddings. He’s a documentarian – he’s there from the earliest preparations, catching the pensive moments. For him, the coin of realm is the subtle gesture that reveals the passions and ironies of the wedding ritual: a stolen kiss, a boy ogling a bride, a girl enveloped in the bride’s veil.

In the years since we met, I think I’ve learned Steven’s secret: It’s the smile. He startles his subjects with the flash, but then they see the grin, and then he feints, and they laugh, and maybe they protest, and then, what happens is magic: he has brought them to life. It’s like he’s tickling the guests until their happiness bubbles out. It is extraordinary.

- Ted Allen, Contributing Editor
Esquire Magazine