We’re thrilled to announce our all-new Wedding Photography Is Art workshop. Join us – Hollie & Patrick, otherwise known as The Mateers – this June in Leeds for a collaborative and interactive day of education. We’ll be delivering new content for 2025 as we delve deep into both the technical and creative processes that drive our photo art.
But that’s not all! We’re honoured to welcome two very special guest speakers, each renowned – in their own right – as one of the world’s leading documentary wedding photographers. Alongside our own workshop programme, our special guests will each deliver their own 30-minute talk and take part in a Q&A session, sharing their invaluable expertise and insights. So without further ado, please let us introduce…
David Scholes: We’re beyond excited to have David Scholes, the three-time This Is Reportage Storyteller of the Year and TWIA UK Wedding Photographer of the Year, joining us at our Leeds workshop. Widely regarded as one of the world’s top documentary photographers, David is celebrated for his unique approach to storytelling — capturing moments both big and small with an unmatched eye for detail and emotion. His mastery of chiaroscuro light (like in the This Is Reportage winning image below) has become a defining characteristic of his style, transforming everyday scenes into extraordinary visual narratives.
Alongside his photographic work, David is a mentor and educator, hosting his own workshops and appearing at conferences to share his wealth of knowledge with photographers worldwide. Recently, David spoke at the NineDots Gathering in Manchester and presented at the Rise-Up retreat in Chamonix, nestled in the French Alps. We can’t wait for him to share his expertise with you.
Chelsea Cannar: We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Chelsea Cannar, the latest recipient of the prestigious TWIA UK Wedding Photographer of the Year award and a Rangefinder Magazine Rising Star, to our Wedding Photography Is Art workshop. Based in Liverpool, Chelsea is known for her relaxed, natural documentary style that captures genuine moments and raw emotion. Her playful, vibrant images bring each wedding day to life, blending artistry and feeling in a way that’s uniquely her own, just like in Chelsea’s This Is Reportage winning image below.
As an educator and mentor, Chelsea works with photographers from all over the globe. Chelsea has also shared her expertise at major events like the NineDots Gathering in London and the Raptor Club retreat in Yorkshire. We’re so excited to have Chelsea join us and can’t wait for her to share her creative insights with you.
Four educators, one day: We’ll all be sharing our expertise, creative insights, and individual approaches to help you push the boundaries of your wedding photography. Chelsea’s vibrant, emotion-driven style and David’s mastery of light and storytelling create an opportunity to learn from two of the most respected documentary photographers in the business. Combined with our own distinct documentary photography approach and artistic style, this workshop will provide you with a diverse range of perspectives to inspire and challenge you. What’s more, this is also ours and David’s only scheduled speaking appearance in the UK and Ireland over the next 12 months – so this is your only opportunity to see us speaking in person for the foreseeable future.
Date: Thursday 12th June 2025, 9.30am arrival (with a 10am start), to 5pm. Join us for food and drinks afterwards, too.
Location: The Tetley, Leeds. Conveniently situated in town, near the train station if you’re travelling in and out of Leeds on the same day – and with ample and affordable accommodation available if you choose to stay over before or after the workshop. The address for the venue is: The Tetley, Hunslet Rd, Leeds, LS10 1JQ.
Your investment: £400 (limited places available). £100 deposit is taken now to secure your place (details below). The remaining balance due two weeks before the workshop.
Early bird price is just £350. Book your place before the end of 9th March 2025 for £50 off the overall price, meaning you’ll pay just £350. Get in touch now to reserve your early-bird ticket!
What’s included: a full day’s education on documentary wedding photography presented by us, The Mateers, with two separate 30 minute guest talks by the amazing David Scholes and Chelsea Cannar. David will also be giving a short practical demonstration, too. The day will then close with a Question and Answer session. During the Q and A, we’ll be asking David and Chelsea our own questions and you’ll have the opportunity to ask all four of us your own questions – with no subject off the table. All our knowledge and experience is open to you.
Food and drink: lunch, refreshments and snacks will also be included.
Wedding Photography Is Art is designed for all photographers: no matter your style or approach to wedding photography, we’re all documenting moments. In today’s digital age, where algorithms and artificial intelligence are seemingly helping to shape the future, we believe documentary photography – capturing authentic, real moments – is more important than ever. So, this workshop is for everyone: whether you’re an experienced photographer, an aspiring professional just starting out, or somewhere in between. Whatever the style of photography you specialise in, we believe the topics we will cover will resonate with you.
It’s about more than awards: Between the four of us we’ve won numerous awards (including: 3 TWIA POTYSs, 5 TIWA Regional awards, 2 TIR POTYs, 3 TIR STOTYs, 2 Masters POTYs, 2 IWPOTYs, 2 PKIR POTYs and 2 RF Rising Stars). Though we’ll certainly touch on awards throughout the workshop, Wedding Photography Is Art is about much more than accolades. It’s about embracing documentary photography as an art form and navigating the challenges of being both a photographer and a business owner. We’ll explore why we believe capturing genuine moments with authenticity is at the core of what makes wedding photography so powerful – now, more than ever.
Crafting a meaningful narrative – A new addition to our 2025 workshop, dedicated to the art of storytelling in your photography. Whether it’s This Is Reportage Story Awards, social media, blogs, or client galleries, storytelling lies at the heart of everything we do as photographers. We’ll walk you through how we create impactful, engaging stories that resonate across diverse media platforms, and demonstrate how a carefully crafted narrative can elevate every wedding you capture. Having seen firsthand how transformative this approach can be through mentoring individual photographers, we’re excited to bring this to a group setting. You can see us above, presenting our previous – sold out – Wedding Photography Is Art workshop in Manchester.
Don’t be an imposter, be yourself: this is the ethos behind ‘wedding photography is art’. We’ll discuss how the day we realised this was the day we began to create the work we’re known for today. We’ll explain that we don’t compare ourselves to others and don’t follow trends. We’ll show how we create authentic work that stands out from the crowd and resonates for our clientele. Work that speaks about us as artists and people (here’s Hollie on stage, delivering this very message to the Ninedots Gathering 2024 crowd).
Programme
- Simplifying the approach – we’ll discuss how we photograph each stage of a wedding day and explain how we maximise our creativity by keeping our approach simple.
- Our artistic style – how we create images that stand out from the crowd, both in camera and through editing. We’ll discuss why we believe what we do is ‘art’.
- Composition is the key – why we believe that composition is the key element to every image we take.
- Ripping up the rule book – how we stopped following conventions and forged our own path in wedding photography.
- Framing and cropping – how we use subtle and dynamic crops to enhance our raw images.
- Thinking ahead – how we think ahead and anticipate moments before they happen – being in the right place at the right time to capture the unexpected.
- No slack time – there’s always something to capture – how we stay creative during the quieter periods of the day.
- Awards – we are lucky to have been successful in many awards and have become experienced photography award judges. We’ll talk about how to win awards to help with your marketing and branding. Which awards to enter and how different photography styles are better suited for certain awards. Tips on This Is Reportage individual and story awards, Masters awards, Fearless awards, PKIR awards. We’ll also cover how winning awards has challenged us to develop ourselves creatively.
- Branding – awards aren’t for everyone and branding is much more than winning an award. We’ll explain how we’ve developed our own unique brand of documentary wedding photography.
- Working as a duo and shooting solo – we’ll discuss how we work together and sometimes, shoot weddings on our own.
- Finding our clientele – how we find our ideal clients.
- Our equipment – the cameras, the lenses, the flash equipment – everything we use on a wedding day.
- Family photography – new for our latest workshop, Hollie – the 2024 This Is Reportage Family Photographer Of The Year – will outline how she has diversified her creative and business practice and how she successfully combines shooting family photography with our established wedding output.
- Technical and creative analysis – how we created some of our best known images and why they have ‘impact’.
- Community is vital – how being part of our wider photography community has helped us develop as people and artists. We are looking forward to widening our own personal community through Wedding Photography Is Art.
A little about us: We’re Patrick and Hollie – we live in Yorkshire with our beautiful family and we photograph weddings all over the UK and abroad. This year, we’ll be presenting at the following international photography conferences: The Fearless and Masters Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, Weddcamp in Brasov, Romania and Rise-Up in Chamonix, France. We’ve both previously presented at The Ninedots Gathering (in London and Manchester) and the online Ninedots conference Change. Hollie also delivered a talk for La Leche League on the Art Of Breastfeeding Photography. That’s us above – and us below, too (watching Hollie’s slideshow during her appearance The Gathering).
Our awards: Hollie is the only photographer to have won the This Is Reportage Wedding Photographer Of The Year award twice (in 2023 and 2024) and also, the only photographer to have won both the This Is Reportage Wedding and This Is Reportage Family Photographer Of The Year awards. Hollie is a Rangefinder Magazine Rising Star Of Wedding Photography and the winner of the This Is Reportage UK Storyteller Of The Year award. Hollie also won two International Wedding Photographer Of The Year categories in 2025. Patrick has appeared in the This Is Reportage Top 10 Photographers In The World list three times and has twice been ranked as WPJAs Top UK Wedding Photojournalist.
Together we have won: the TWIA UK Photographers Of The year award, the Masters Of Wedding Photography UK Wedding Photographer Of The Year award, the Photographers Keeping It Real Photographer Of The Year award and have twice been named as one of the best photographers in the UK by Professional Photo Magazine. We have both made the Fearless Top Photographers In The World list multiple times.
Securing your place: want to book on the workshop? We’d love to see you there! Pay your £100 booking fee and we’ll look forward to seeing you in Leeds, this June. Please use the PayPal button at the end of this page to secure your place.
Kind words: We love working with photographers to help them develop their work, refine their approach and above all, empower them on their way to reaching their full potential. Here are some kind words from photographers we’ve worked with:
“I attended The Mateers’ workshop in Manchester in 2024. Hollie and Patrick have so much knowledge to share, and their humble nature and down-to-earth teaching style makes learning from them an absolute joy. They are not only incredibly talented documentary photographers, but also genuinely kind and wonderful people. Understanding their approach to wedding photography has significantly influenced my own work, and so I’ll always be grateful to the Mateers for their guidance and support. If you want to learn from the best in the business, I highly recommend attending one of their workshops.” Jenna Kathleen (Jenna Kathleen Photographer).
“WOW! After being a fan of Hollie & Patrick (The Mateers) work for a long time I attended their workshop in 2024 and I was blown away. Not only by their photos but the way they share their knowledge and explain things in an easy understandable way. Having been a wedding photographer myself for over 10 years, Hollie & Patrick didn’t disappoint and I left with loads of tips and enthusiasm for my next weddings. Seeing how they work, approach weddings and storytelling was inspiring. I also had some 1-2-1 mentoring with Holiie and Patrick who spent the time going through some of my recent award entries and they were amazing with their critique and advice. I have taken the advice in to future weddings and already feel better about the way I approach and photograph weddings. Not only was the advice practical for future shooting, I even won a story award with a previously failed attempt after some tweaking on the mentoring call, amazing! I would highly recommend any of Hollie & Patrick’s education and workshops for any photographer.” Scott Carney (Scott Carney Photography and owner of Photographers Keeping It Real).
“If anyone is looking for a documentary wedding photography workshop, we can’t recommend this highly enough! We joined the previous workshop that Hollie and Patrick put on in Manchester – it was such a great experience! They’re both such an inspiration to us and lovely people too. We learned a lot and I must admit – I’m tempted to go again!” Karolina from Blue Bell Studios.
“I had the absolute pleasure of attending a workshop with Hollie and Patrick Mateer and honestly, it was brilliant. They’re not just incredibly talented photographers, they’re also amazing at sharing their knowledge in a way that’s clear, inspiring, and easy to understand. One of the biggest takeaways for me was their approach to wedding photography as an art form. They showed how the documentary style isn’t just about capturing moments — it’s about doing so in a really clever, creative, and thoughtful way to tell a couple’s story beautifully. Their passion for what they do is infectious, and I left the workshop full of ideas and excitement for my own wedding work. If you ever get the chance to learn from them, do it, you won’t regret it!” Martyn Hand (Martyn Hand Photography).
“Being mentored by Patrick and Hollie was a no brainer. The amount of detail in their critiques was amazing. They were honest, straightforward and full of fantastic suggestions and ideas. Taking their advice and reworking some images I even went on to pick up several new awards. If you’re thinking of investing in photography education or training, you really cannot go wrong with Hollie and Patrick”. Alex Benyon (Alex Benyon Photography).
“Both Hollie and Patrick are great photographers – and lovely people. Through their feedback and guidance I managed to win my first ever This Is Reportage and Fearless awards. I have since continued winning awards, which I know is down to their guidance – and I use the advice they’ve given me at every wedding I photograph”. Barnaby Staniland (BGS Weddings).
“Thank you once again for your wisdom, advice and guidance with the mentoring sessions we’ve had. I’m already feeling the difference at weddings, but also during editing, too”. Lewis Fackrell (Lewis Fackrell Photography).
“The best investment I made last year”. Robin Goodlad (Robin Goodlad Photography).
“The unique documentary approach of The Mateers is inspiring. I met Patrick after his talk at the Gathering conference in 2022. After a few beers, a late night McDonalds and plenty of photography chat I asked him about possibly mentoring me to improve my documentary. Watching Patrick meticulously go through each galley was fascinating. His attention to detail, eye for a moment and story telling-ability is incredible. A year on and I have his voice in the back of my head at every wedding. Get closer – is this a moment? Crop harder, how do you want to tell the story? And in the edit – more cropping. I won my first This Is Reportage story award at the start of 2024 and a really important single award in 2023. Both the story and single award came from the mentoring. Don’t walk, run to get yourself booked on their workshop. You will take away so much. I’m a much stronger storytelling photographer thanks to The Mateers”. Paul Williams (Ginger Beard Wedding Photography).
Photo credits: Wedding photography by Hollie Mateer, Patrick Mateer, David Scholes, Chelsea Cannar. Behind the scenes / ‘head shot’ images by: Chelsea Cannar, Karl Chester, Paul Williams, Emmie Scott. Individual copyright owned by the individual photographer.