Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic

In the words of Martin Parr—“Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic and almost sentimental, hence the fact that it remains such a popular choice for wedding photographs.”—we hear a meditation on the way memory is shaped by vision. The tone of sepia, soft and warm, transforms a moment into something more than itself. What may have been simple or fleeting becomes clothed in romance and sentiment, as though the photograph were not merely an image, but a vessel of longing and tenderness.

The ancients too understood this power of coloring memory. The poet Virgil, in his Aeneid, clothed the fall of Troy not only in fire and ruin but in the golden hues of destiny, transforming destruction into legend. Just as sepia alters the eye’s perception, so Virgil’s words altered the heart’s, turning sorrow into something noble and eternal. In this, we see the truth Parr names: images and tones do not merely show us the past—they shape how we feel about it.

The popularity of wedding photographs in sepia carries a deeper wisdom. A wedding is not merely a contract of the present moment; it is the promise of a future and the echo of tradition. By casting such images in sepia, couples unconsciously tie themselves to the great chain of ancestry, making their vows feel timeless, as though they belong not only to today but to all of history. The warmth of the filter whispers: This love is eternal.

Consider too the paintings of the Renaissance, whose golden glows and softened tones elevated their subjects to a state of divine grace. The figures were not shown in harsh light, but bathed in radiance, as if to say that human love and human beauty partake of eternity. In the same spirit, sepia tones in photography act as a halo upon the ordinary, transfiguring what might otherwise be too real, too fragile, into something worthy of reverence.

Thus, Parr’s observation is more than commentary—it is a lesson in how we craft memory. By choosing sepia, we do not merely capture an image, but we declare: This moment is sacred, this love is eternal, this union belongs not only to today but to all ages. And so the photograph, with its softened hue, becomes not just a record of a day, but a testimony to the timeless longing of the human heart.