Awards aren’t the reason you’ll love your wedding photos. However, they are a useful shortcut for trust – because the best ones are hard to win and harder to win consistently. We’re Marta May Photography, award winning photographers – also known as The Mays (Marta + Artur) – and we’ve been recognised through a mix of client-voted awards, international photography competitions, and independent press lists.
QUCK ANSWER
If you’re choosing an award-winning wedding photographer, look for awards that reflect two things: (1) real couple experience (client-voted feedback), and (2) consistent craft under pressure (documentary storytelling in real weddings, not staged shoots). That combination is the safest signal of quality.
KEY FACTS
Studio: Marta May Photography (The Mays – Marta + Artur)
TWIA: National Winners 2023 (listed as THE MAYS)
Documentary craft: recognised by This Is Reportage (Top 30 list for 2018 includes Marta May)
International recognition: Fearless “Top Photographers of 2018” lists Marta May with 5 awards
OUR AWARDS
THIS IS REPORTAGE
Showcasing the very best in documentary wedding photography, This is Reportage really share our values: Nothing staged, no poses, just pure, natural images taken by some of the world’s very best photographers. There are two different awards: Reportage Awards are for fantastic individual captures, with just the top 4% of submissions becoming awarded.
They also have Story Awards, which are for a series of 15 – 20 images, all from a single wedding, and it was also incredibly tough to attain one of these, with just the top 6% of submissions awarded. We’ve been recognised in both of these categories, and in December 2018 we were in the elite group of TOP 30 THIS IS REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAPHERS – we’re still pinching ourselves about this!
Our reportage awards:
Our story awards:
FEARLESS PHOTOGRAPHERS
This ace organisation brings together fearless couples and passionate professional photographers from around the world. Every two months, a panel of expert curators selects the very best wedding photos (about 2 out of every 100 submissions!) as Fearless Awards. 2018 brought us 5 FEARLESS AWARDS in total and we were in TOP 40 FEARLESS PHOTOGRAPHERS WORLDWIDE and also THE BEST UK FEARLESS PHOTOGRAPHERS IN 2018.
MASTERS OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
The Masters is a competition for the best wedding photography in the UK and Ireland. An international jury presents new awards to the best, most exceptional and innovative wedding photos every three months. In 2018 we received two awards from Masters of Wedding Photography, winners Masters Round 7 2018, and it was a real thrill to see our style and approach being commended.
THE WEDDING INDUSTRY AWARDS
OK, this is a biggie for us. TWIA is the only regional and national client voted awards in the wedding industry. It was set up to recognize excellent wedding suppliers and to help anyone organising a wedding find the best people for their big day. We’ve been highly commended and have also been awarded regional winners for the West Midlands. This means our couples are really happy with our work, which means the absolute world to us. We flipping love you guys!
TWIA NATIONAL WINNERS 2023!
HERE’S THE FEEDBACK FROM OUR AWESOME COUPLES
RANGEFINDER MAGAZINE
Rangefinder is synonymous with innovation, and it’s super prestigious. You can’t just apply to take part in this international competition, you have to be nominated. Once a photographer gets nominated, they put together a submission of 30 images that represent their signature as a wedding photographer.
These emerging photographers show promise in taking the aesthetics of wedding photography to new places. Visionaries today, they are the educators and mentors of the future. In 2019 we were nominated and shortlisted which is a HUGE honour!
TOP 50 UK WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS 2022
TOP 100 WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE UK 2020
