Nicole Friedler has been photographing memorable events and families for ten years. Her images have been published in Town and Country, InStyle Weddings, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Boston Elegant Weddings, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style, The Improper Bostonian, Martha's Vineyard Weddings Magazine, Cape Cod Bride, and most recently on The Martha Stewart Show. All that experience aside, she approaches her work with a sense of spirit, a sense of style, and a sense of humor so that each photo is its own experience that is filled with life and emotion. No image is mundane and each one is imbued with the character of the moment and the people.  You can also watch an interview of Nicole Friedler from a local Martha's Vineyard station: http://friedlerphotography.com/video.php



What house did you live in?
Wilder

What was your major?
French and Studio Art minor

How did you decide to go to Smith?
My mother went there, so I took a look at it while I was looking to apply to schools and it came out on top above all the other places - plus I didn't get in to Harvard...

Aren't you glad you didn't get into Harvard?
YES!

Was anyone at Smith influential to your career as a photographer?
Remember Chester Michalik? I spent the summer before my junior year in Northampton, working at the library so that I could get on-campus housing, and I took my first photo class at the summer school at UMass. I met with Chester late in the summer and asked him if I could do a Special Studies that first semester since I'd taken Photo I and Photo II wasn't offered until second semester. He approved it and I was off!  Stephen Petegorsky, my Photo II teacher was also influential.


Do you think they still have darkrooms at Smith?
I would assume so, as you really should learn the fundamentals of the art form before moving on. I don't have any clue how or what they teach there now. I shoot completely digitally now, having switched over fully four years ago.

What led you to focus on Wedding photography/family portraits?I think my love at looking at our family photos over the years drew me to what I do now. Because I know the importance of reliving my family history through photographs, I feel very happy that I'm able to provide people with the invaluable service of preserving their special moments for them. I fell in love with photography that summer before my junior year in Northampton, and am a naturally gregarious person who's interested in people, so the two things just went hand-in-hand.

Are you willing travel for an assignment or do you only work on Martha's Vineyard?
I do travel for work - and love to do so.  I've been to Italy, Chicago, Southampton, NY, New Hampshire, New York City, Boston, Miami, Grand Rapids, MI and San Diego for weddings, and do family portraits when I'll be in one area for a bit - San Francisco, New York and Boston mainly.

If you are a bride, what do you want to look for in a photographer?
I suggest people look at the work first and see what moves them in terms of images - some photographers do fabulous "glossy" work, creating images that look like they come from magazine pages. Others, like myself, focus less on the glam and more on the emotion of the moment - I tell my clients that if they can look at their photos and think "That's not just how we looked, that's how we
felt", then I have done my job.

During a wedding, how crucial is your relationship with your
client and the client's with the photographer? I ask this b/c I
remember getting my picture taken at a friends wedding and the
photographer was just mean and scary, barking orders at us. It was
hard to smile.
It's critical that people feel at ease when you're photographing them. The dumber the comment or joke I tell, the better the photos look!After choosing a few photographers you like, communicate with them, and, if possible, make an appointment to get together with them, look at their work in person (so much is able to be done online now), and, most importantly, see if you LIKE them and
feel comfortable with them. Your photographer will be on the one vendor at your wedding with whom you will spend the most time, so it's kind of like dating: you have to be comfortable with the person. And it's even better if you like them. I am really fortunate that some of my dearest friends over the last ten years are former clients.

How did a Jersey girl end up on Martha's Vineyard?
I was supposed to attend my roommate from NYC's wedding on the Vineyard in June of 1998. A number of things were going on at the time, not the least of which were that the boyfriend I was dating in Boston and was going to go with broke up with me two months before; because my roommate was getting married I had to look for a new place to live; I was hating my job and interviewing for a big job at AOL that would have meant me moving to Virginia (!) and was attempting to get fired so that they would pay my unemployment. Plus, a weekend on the Vineyard (even ten years ago) would have been about $800 for transportation and lodging and the wedding present and...I just couldn't do it. So two weeks before the event, I bailed and called the B&B owner - with whom I really got along and had several phone calls - and asked if I could get my $100 deposit back, to which she replied that if she rented the room it would be no problem. I believe one of my Smith friends took the room, but don't really remember....So, dot dot dot, the summer went by (miserably), I moved back into the apartment I had been living in on the East side (rented
from an elderly Smith alum through the Smith Club of NYC) prior to moving to the West Side, took my four weeks vacation all at once by announcing it to my boss and walking out the door (hoping to get fired) and then I got fired and realized I had to start looking for work again. I then decided that balancing my checkbook would be a good start and I realized (mid-August) that I'd not gotten my deposit back, so I called the woman at the B&B on the Vineyard. She went
into a ten-minute apology and the end of which she went on about how the girl she'd hired for the summer had fallen down her stairs and broken her ankle two weeks before and she was doing everything herself and...I wasn't working?! Did I want to come up there and help her? So six days later I arrived on the Vineyard, only for four weeks. Which turned into six, near the end of which my employer told me that she and her husband were going to Florida for the winter and needed someone to housesit and watch the cat...I told her she was torturing me, and that I would think about it when I went back to NYC (which I had to do).I should add that, the week before this conversation, I booked my first wedding - I was carrying my camera with me at the farmer's market, and the lemonade stand guy asked if I was a photographer. We started talking and he said he was getting married over Columbus Day weekend and wasn't going to have a photographer but realized how important it was. He was a graphic designer, and so we agreed to barter - I'd shoot his wedding and he would design my logo and business card. And that was that.So I returned to NYC and less than 24 hours after my arrival had to get to
a subway to make my way downtown for a dentist appointment. I could not make myself get on the train at the first stop I came to, so I kept walking until I had five minutes to get to the dentist and so jumped on the train at the next stop. As I was putting my token in the turnstyle, all of the people were getting off an uptown train and as I was reaching to put the token in, some big, miserable guy came walking straight at me through the turnstyle and he looked so miserable and worn-out that at the moment, looking at his face, I
decided I would move to the Vineyard. So I went up two days before
Columbus Day weekend with all my worldly possessions in the back of a
UHaul and started handing out my business cards. And that was ten
years ago...


Wow, if that random guy at the turnstyle only knew what an
influence he had on your future!!
Then again, maybe he wouldn't care. Right?!


How do you think Smith has had an influence on your life since
graduation - other than a Smithie taking your room at the B&B.
I do believe that it has opened some doors in terms of people seeing me as accomplished and intelligent "Oh, YOU went to SMITH...", the insinuation being that I'm super-smart.  I also have gotten a couple of jobs because Smith alums read my biography on my website where it states that I went there. I also believe the best thing I got from mySmith education was how to problem-solve, and that has certainly helped me run my own business and get along in general in the world.


Can you believe we are approaching our 20th year since graduation? What happened?! Where did the last 20 years go?! I spent the night in a dorm at Wellesley last year (my adopted sister just finished her sophomore year there) and I slept on her floor on an air mattress and you know what?! The air pressure in the pipes went wonky and the fire alarm went off at 1am - just like that time in Wilder when I was fire captain!! So there I was in my flannel pjs in the dorm courtyard with 100 18-20 years olds thinking that I felt like I was right back at Smith - only that was 18 years ago!!! I went back to sleep - and the
alarm went off again 2 hours later - my last time spending the night in my sister's dorm!!

Did you have a vision of who you would be or what you would be doing in your 40's when you were still in College?
Yes, actually, in the summer before my junior year, I had a voice speak to me telling me that I would be a photographer, so I had the feeling that I would be doing it, though I couldn't tell you back then that it would be here on the Vineyard in this capacity. I also felt that I would really be known in my community for my profession, so being one of a select number of photographers on the Vineyard has provided that. I thought I'd be married and have children by now, but life takes turns that you can never anticipate, and you learn to adapt. The man I'm with is going through a divorce and has grown kids, so by the time all is said and done, I don't think that children will be a part of my life. Which now, though I always thought I wanted children and a family, is completely okay.

 
What is your craziest wedding story?
Well, that would be the wedding of the two crazy coke-heads I did about ten years ago in May, the hottest day on record in mid-May, I might add. The wedding started three hours late because the groom was doing something
(sniff) and had to go pick up a calligraphy sign that they had paid hundreds for - it was for people to sign at the reception.There were about forty people there and as I photographed I was asking people how they knew the couple. I got answers like "I wait on them at their favorite restaurant." "I mow their lawn." "I frame their artwork." No kidding. The guests were plowed by the time the ceremony happened, because the bar was opened so that people didn't pass out from the heat while waiting.Then the bride fell off of her Manolo Blahniks while doing their first dance - a tango to the theme from that Al Pacino movie where he plays the blind veteran. They were both completely high. And the lawnmower guy was having sex with the groom's sister (who was twenty years older than he) in the bathroom. And the groom was standing out by the cook tent eating the filet with his hands and not sitting down with his bride.And then they had a baby six months later. And he died of a drug overdose five years ago.How's that for crazy?!

I have always thought this task would be an incredibly stressful job - especially during those "I do's" when you can't exactly ask them to repeat the vows so you can get a second shot at it. Are you able to enjoy yourself at weddings or is it a lot of hard work?
I do not get stressed out about missing a shot. If I do, well, I do. There are usually plenty of other people in the audience clicking away who catch what I might not, though I don't go into the situation with that thought, of course. I love what I do and enjoy it immensely, though, at 41 (after ACL construction in my left knee and doing it for ten years), it IS a lot of hard work.  It is significant physical work during the event when I literally sit down for 30 minutes out of 8 hours, lugging 40 pounds of equipment around, running here and there, anticipating where people will be, etc.  Keeping up with technology and the demands of digital photography and computer work is also very difficult - I was never a computer genius, but I have to have to edit all my work...



So, after capturing the moments of endless ceremonies and families, do you think all that time looking at this concept of family and marriage through a lens has changed your perspective of what it all means?
I don't think so - I'm still amazed by people and their interactions and relationships and I love being able to give them what I found so precious, which was a record of my family history. I still cry at most weddings and get goosebumps and smile while I'm photographing, so it's all good. I truly think I have one of the best jobs in the world...