Our Story and Our Team

What started over a decade ago with just two of us has grown into a beautiful collective of artist who share a vision of telling stories of love in an honest way. We are a photo and video team capturing real life celebrations and love in a candid, documentary style.

"On the day empire comes crashing down, the sun will wake to crumbling border walls, prison doors will swing open, the skies will cheer, lands will be returned to indigenous peoples, colonial institutions will rot and nation states will decay, landlords will be evicted and vacant homes will be filled, genders will be as varied as the flowers, and the oceans will breathe a sigh of relief. Abundant days are on their way." - Vienna Rye, @vrye

OUR NAME

Shalom is an ancient Hebrew word meaning peace. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Wholeness. Beauty. Fullness. Life. Laughter. Rest. Love. Everything as it was intended to be.

There are glimpses of shalom all around, yet life is still full of pain, oppression, systemic inequality & injustices. In our photography, we hope to capture the signs of shalom that are springing up all around us & showing themselves to the world.

We believe it is found in wedding vows, cultural traditions, gender diversity, crushing the patriarchy, celebrations with family, nonconformity, communities of friends, connection to nature, anti-capitalism, caring for the earth, & in the messy, ordinary lives of you & me.

& we plan to fight for it, search for it, & imagine it when it cannot as easily be found.

WORK WITH US

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CLIENT REVIEW

Torrey

"One of the best decisions we made for our wedding day was to hire The Shalom Imaginative! Nate was one of the coolest people we have ever met. Not only is he a true artist who will capture the organic beauty of your wedding, but is a calming force in what can sometimes be a chaotic day! He is incredibly professional, taking the time to chat with you before the big day and making sure he thoroughly understands your vision. ... He was the perfect combo of hanging back and taking amazing candids of "little moments," but also taking charge when group photos were happening, or when my partner and I felt awkward and didn't know what to do in front of the camera. I could go on and on, but I'll leave you with this: If you want a talented, kind, communicative, creative and all-around good-vibes human to be with you on one of the biggest days of your life - go with The Shalom Imaginative! I guarantee you will not be disappointed."

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CLIENT REVIEW

Tammy M.

"We loved working with Shalom Imaginative on our wedding day! our photographer for the day was Igor, and he did not disappoint. He went out of his way to truly capture our day and our photos ended up insanely beautiful. Meeting with Nate + Liz was so easy- they really helped us shape what we wanted out of the day and were consistent with communication leading up to the day. Such a great team."

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CLIENT REVIEW

Isabel G.

"The Shalom Imaginative went above and beyond to capture our wedding day the exact way we wanted on both film and digital. From their instagram account and website galleries we immediately knew that we wanted to hire them, we didn't reach out to anyone else. ... Vanessa effortlessly captured everyone and everything even though it was just her shooting throughout the whole day. Vanessa rolled with all last-minute changes and on-the-fly pivots like a true professional. We got our preview just 2 days after our wedding which was such a gift. And the final results were better than we even expected: relaxed, candid, artistic, natural and totally us."

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CLIENT REVIEW

Isabel + Joey

"We hired Nate, Vanessa & Keren to shoot our welcome party and wedding and HOLY COW they blew us away! From our first meetings over Zoom, we knew we'd made the right choice. Aside from their obviously gorgeous work, we chose them because their vibe is so down to earth, comforting, and fun. During the two parties, they were efficient and blended right in with our guests so all of our pictures felt organic, which was important to us. We opted to do half on film, half on digital and were completely speechless at how it all turned out. The cherry on top was how quickly we got our pictures back: we got the email one month after our wedding while we were on our honeymoon! So special to relive that day in that setting, and we were so impressed with that turnaround. ... Their work is so, so special. We truly can't recommend them strongly enough!" - Isabel & Joey

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CLIENT REVIEW

Marcelo F.

"The Shalom Imaginative are EXCELLENT photographers for any event or occasion! From the start, Nate and his team made my fiancé and I feel we were in good hands for our wedding day. They are friendly, professional and answered all our questions quickly throughout the process. Our photographer for the day was Igor. He was fun to have around and also delivered amazing photos in a big way! We were so happy with how our photos turned out that we bought two photo albums afterwards (one for us and one to gift to my mother in law). We are so happy we went with the Shalom Imaginative for our big day and highly recommend them to anyone in need of photographers!"

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Molly S.

"Nate and his team were our favorite vendor we worked with. They have the most calming presence and prevent anything from stressing you out. They are incredibly go with the flow and never push you to do anything you don’t want to. They have great suggestions as well. The photos are so special and genuine. We opted for very few staged photos and yet they were able to capture so many intimate moments that are so much more representative of the weekend. 10/10!!! Would book them over and over again. Thank you Nate and Karen."

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Nathan B

"Vanessa from Shalom Imaginative was AMAZING! She came with a plan in mind and was very flexible when we inevitably couldn't stick to the schedule. She was very patient with everyone and had a really good eye when it came to catching moments that we didn't even know were occurring."

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Evelia A.

"We couldn't be happier with choosing Shalom Imaginative for our wedding day. From the zoom meeting months out to discuss what we had in mind and our options, to the expert direction and professionalism from Igor, our photographer, everything was truly perfect. P.S. We highly recommend the film add-on! Those are some of our favorite photos, we can't believe how great they came out. Thank you! The photos are so beautiful! He made our little backyard and average suburban street shine -- the pictures capture what is the happiest day of our lives."

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Emily L.

"Nate and the entire Shalom Imaginative team are amazing. I found them through Instagram and immediately fell in love with their style of photography. My husband and I hired Nate for our engagement and wedding photos and could not be happier with the results. We were both nervous for our engagement shoot, but getting photographed by Nate was like hanging out with a close friend. A year later when we reconnected at our wedding, it was as if no time had gone by. Looking through our photos truly takes us back to our wedding day and makes us so happy. Nate is kind, professional, talented, and genuine. I cannot recommend Nate and The Shalom Imaginative enough. I would hire them again in a heartbeat!"

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