My name is Matouš Bárta and I’m a wedding photographer.
I have not been one ever since and I did not dream of becoming one when I was six. Nor did dream of becoming a dustman.
The future lay ahead of me in the great unknown, and it was the right way.
My dear father, just like almost everyone at that time, used to take and develop photographs in our bathroom. For me this ritual was an inseparable part of my childhood. Sometimes I would join my father in the red dusk and watch pictures appear under the magnifier, which used to belong to my grandfather. My dad used a Zenit E – it was light sealed with carpet tape and it had to be rewind with surgical precision in order to avoid breaking the film.
I used to use the very same Zenit when I started taking pictures myself at the age of fifteen with the plan to study Photography in Brno and much earlier than that I have begun observing the world around me.
Now I’m twice as old, married to a great, loving wife and have two children and two cats.
And I make a living as a professional photographer.
To me that was something absolutely inconceivable fifteen years ago.
While at school, I read a lot and attempted writing short stories. I never, however, got in it deep enough so that I would be happy with the result. Only later I found out that I do not have to be a writer in order to tell stories. All those skills that I missed while writing, I already possessed. Just in a slightly different area.
Just like one can master a foreign language by learning to think in it, in the same way, through all those years I’ve been looking at and perceiving images that surrounded me, I also learned to see the world in pictures. The composition, the timing, the structure of the photography reaches me somehow subconsciously. Every wedding is different and has its unique story to tell. Every place has its own spirit and every human being changes and spices up the atmosphere with their presence.
When shooting, my mind is completely clear. I don’t know what will happen and what the location will look like, all I know that I'm in there, I’m a part of it and I shall catch it in the photos. The photos, despite being still and mute, (and perhaps because of that) have the ability to capture the atmosphere and story in a completely unique way.
Where I am today is the result of my life journey.
The fact that you are getting married is the result of yours.
I will be delighted to put into practice all I have learned in my journey in order to tell your unique story.