Lisbon & London — Working since 2011
Photographs ofwhat actually happened
Weddings, portraits and editorial commissions, shot quietly on digital and 35mm film. Eighteen days a year, half of them somewhere with a different alphabet.
Studio, Rua da Boavista — 2025
I photograph the ten seconds either side of the moment everyone else is waiting for
Fifteen years, four countries and somewhere north of two hundred weddings. I shoot on a mix of digital and 35mm film, mostly available light, mostly from further away than you would expect.
My work sits between documentary and portraiture: I will spend an afternoon saying almost nothing, then ask you to stand by a window for four minutes. The result is a set of photographs that look like the day actually felt rather than how a magazine says it should have.
- Based
- Lisbon, travelling from London
- Shoots per year
- Capped at 18
- Format
- Digital + Portra 400
- Delivery
- 6 weeks, private gallery
Twelve frames from
the last three years
Four ways to work together
Prices are honest starting points rather than teasers. Everything is quoted properly once I know the date, the place and how long you want me there.
Weddings — 10 hours
Full-day documentary coverage from the quiet morning through to the part of the night nobody remembers properly. One photographer, or two if the day is spread across venues.
- Pre-shoot walk of the venue
- 10 hours, no second-shooter upsell
- 600–900 edited frames
- Two rolls of 35mm film, scanned
- Private gallery for six months
Four stages, six weeks, no chasing
A call, not a form
Twenty minutes on the phone. I want to know what you actually like about photographs, which is rarely what a questionnaire captures.
A plan, loosely held
Light, timings, the two or three frames worth engineering the day around — and permission to abandon all of it if something better happens.
The day itself
I am quiet, I am early, and I will be further away than you think. You should mostly forget I am there.
Six weeks later
A private gallery, fully edited, no watermarks and no upsell. Film scans follow a fortnight after the digital set.
Dates are held for seven days without a deposit. After that I'm afraid it goes to whoever asks next — I keep the calendar honest.
“We barely noticed her all day. Then the gallery arrived and it was as if someone had written the day down while we were busy living it.”
Marta & Joana
Wedding, Alentejo
“Briefed for a straightforward founder portrait and got a set we ended up building the whole brand around.”
Rui Almeida
Café Sereia, Lisbon
“Reliable to the minute, unflustered when the location fell through, and the film scans were worth the extra fortnight.”
Helen Voss
Picture editor, Another Escape
Before you write
Constantly. Roughly half of my work each year is outside Portugal. Travel and accommodation are billed at cost, and I don't charge a day rate for the days either side of a shoot.
Tell me the date
and where it is
Every enquiry gets a real reply within two days, including the ones I can't take. If the date is gone I'll say so immediately and suggest two photographers I'd hire myself.
- Studio
- Rua da Boavista 42, 1200-067 Lisboa
- Direct
- studio@elinmarlow.com+351 912 555 048@elinmarlow
- Availability
- 2026 fully booked · Spring 2027 open