SEEN IN BLACK AND WHITEEllen & Franz

July 27, 2026

You leave with the photographs the same day

You get them in black and white, the evening of the shoot, while you are still out. That is what Ellen and Franz took home from two hours in Berlin, and it is what I want to give every couple I photograph.

Black and white engagement photo of a couple with a bouquet in Berlin - Nordica Photography

Black and white Berlin engagement portrait of a couple against a white wall - Nordica Photography

Playful black and white Berlin engagement photo on stone steps - Nordica Photography

Two hours, and it is done

Ellen and Franz wanted pictures of the two of them before the wedding, so they gave an afternoon in Berlin to it. Less than two hours: a walk, the steps, a wall, a train going past. No production, no whole day given over to it. They came as themselves and left with a set of photographs of exactly that.

Couple on the steps in Berlin, a black and white engagement session - Nordica Photography

Playful black and white engagement photo in Berlin - Nordica Photography

Couple by a wall with the Berlin cathedral behind, black and white engagement - Nordica Photography

How the same day works

You get the black-and-white JPEGs unedited, straight from the camera and the way they were seen, not in three weeks and not once you have chased an invoice. The raw files stay with me, so if you ever want a few brought into colour later, we can. But the pictures are in your hands while the day is still warm.

Editorial black and white engagement photo on the steps in Berlin - Nordica Photography

Engaged couple with the Berlin TV Tower between them, black and white - Nordica Photography

Why black and white

I take most of what I do from the old Ingmar Bergman films. If the name is new to you, Bergman was a Swedish director, and probably the most important one the country has produced. From the fifties on he made slow, severe films in black and white about people and their faces: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona. Nothing but shadow, silence and the human face, and more feeling in them than most things shot in full colour since. I work the same way, not converting at a desk afterwards but seeing in black and white through the viewfinder and shooting it that way, JPEGs as I go with the raws underneath.

Playful black and white Berlin engagement photo with a bouquet - Nordica Photography

Intimate black and white close-up from a Berlin engagement session - Nordica Photography

Couple embracing on a chair, black and white Berlin engagement session - Nordica Photography

Black and white portrait of a bride-to-be in Berlin - Nordica Photography

Still the weddings, and more besides

None of this is me stepping back from weddings. Weddings and elopements are the heart of what I do and always will be. But alongside the big days I want far more of this: an hour or two with a couple, somewhere in Europe, before the wedding or after it, or for no reason beyond wanting the pictures. Berlin is a short hop from home, and most of the continent is a morning’s flight away.

Bride-to-be on the U-Bahn escalator in Berlin, black and white - Nordica Photography

Couple kissing as a train passes on the Berlin U-Bahn, black and white engagement - Nordica Photography

Tell me where you will be

If you are getting married, anywhere, and you want an hour of it that is only the two of you and a camera that sees in black and white, tell me where you will be. Berlin especially. I am most likely already halfway there.