Richard Marchisotto

  Richard Marchisotto, one of the country's leading wedding and portrait photographers, started working in the darkroom at the age of 12. He learned techniques in processing and printing under the watchful eye of his father, who started their family-run photography business over 50 years ago.

"I thought it was magical to watch images appear from a blank piece of paper." Throughout his 30-year career, he has exhibited his photographs around the country and shot hundreds of high profile weddings and events in his native New York, California, Florida and even Bermuda. In 2001, he traveled to Ireland to shoot Pierce Brosnan's much publicized wedding. Richard insists that his work is most inspiring when the bride and groom give up control and trust him. "There's a lot of freedom in that trust. It's an opportunity to find the true emotion of the wedding." This past year, Richard has immersed himself in digital photography. "With all the new technology that's out there, I'm able to duplicate what I can do on film with a digital capture. The next big challenge for any photographer is to be able to express yourself with this new digital medium."