The Kind of Love I Want to Photograph

There is a love I sometimes get to witness through my lens.

It's attentive. Filled with awe.

Gentle and unashamed.

It's the kind where one person notices the other is anxious before a word is spoken.

Where a hand reaches out before it's asked for.

Where someone adjusts the other's hair without thinking.

A private language. One that no one else in the room can read.

I've photographed this kind of love between couples, between new parents, and between people whose lives have been intertwined for years. And I think I've become increasingly interested in those tiny, almost invisible exchanges.

Not the big kiss because I've asked you to kiss.

The thing that happens just before it.

The way you look at each other. The hand that finds the other one. The little check-in. The instinctive movement towards someone you know incredibly well.

Those are the photographs I find myself looking for.

Photographing couples without performing for the camera

Perhaps that's why I'm drawn to intimate couples photography and elopements.

There's something about stripping away everything that isn't necessary and concentrating on two people and the relationship between them that really appeals to me.

I don't need you to perform being in love for me.

And I don't particularly want to manufacture intimacy that isn't there.

I'd rather give you enough direction that you can forget about me a little. Then I can watch for what's already happening between you.

The way you naturally stand together. How you touch. Who reaches for whom. The things you do without knowing you're doing them.

For an intimate London elopement, that might be the quiet few minutes before you leave, getting ready together at home, walking through London after the ceremony, or disappearing somewhere that means something to the two of you.

It doesn't have to look traditionally romantic to feel incredibly intimate.

In fact, I often prefer it when it doesn't.

And then sometimes, two becomes three

I see the same private language when I photograph families.

Sometimes there's a baby in the middle of it now. You're exhausted. Your attention is being pulled in completely different directions.

But underneath all of that, there you still are.

Two people who know one another.

Some of my favourite photographs from newborn and family sessions in London aren't really about the baby at all.

They're about the look between the parents.

The hand on a shoulder.

The kiss that happened when nobody thought I was photographing it.

The way one person notices what the other needs.

It's part of the family's story too.

And I think it's worth photographing.

The moments I don't want to disturb

When I find this kind of connection, I try to be very still.

I don't want to interrupt it by asking you to do it again.

Because the photograph isn't really about the gesture.

It's about what the gesture tells me.

There's history in it. Trust. Attraction. Friendship. Familiarity. Sometimes absolute exhaustion.

Love doesn't always announce itself.

Sometimes it's just a hand reaching out before it's asked for.

That's the love I want to photograph.

If you're planning an intimate elopement in London, want photographs of the two of you that feel like your actual relationship, or you're a family wanting something more honest than a collection of perfect poses, I'd love to hear from you.

Samantha Black is a London photographer specialising in motherhood, newborn, family and intimate couples photography. Working naturally at home and on location across London, her work focuses on honest connection, feeling and the small, often unnoticed moments between people.