Love knows no boundaries. That is what Amit Shah and Aditya Madiraju proved when they decided to get married during a traditional, religious ceremony, in a Hindu temple in New Jersey.
The Indian couple’s impressive and stylish wedding was immortalized by professional photographer Charmi Peña. Her photos from the event were such a success; they immediately went viral, which is why the photographs became a widely shared record of Amit and Aditya’s celebration.
More info: Instagram | Charmi Peña
The photographs preserve the couple's own occasion
Wedding images bring together people, clothing, gestures and place, but their strongest context is the particular couple celebrating. Here, the photographer's credited work gives readers access to an event that mattered to Amit and Aditya and the people around them.
The ceremony should not be turned into an unsupported claim about every Hindu institution or the practices of all Indian families. The temple ceremony took place on 19 July 2019. The story can stand on its own as a documented celebration of this relationship. Looking at the sequence as a wedding album, rather than only a headline, lets the personal occasion remain at the center.
The album keeps the celebration personal
Charmi Peña’s photographs record Amit Shah and Aditya Madiraju’s wedding through people, clothing and gestures. Reading the sequence as an album lets the couple’s particular occasion remain central. Its wider significance can be acknowledged without turning one ceremony into a statement about every family, temple or religious community.
Continue with a related feature: A Friday the 13th Engagement Shoot With a Horror-Movie Twist.
About the couple and the ceremony
Amit Shah, then 32, is a choreographer and the founder of a dance company; Aditya Madiraju, then 31, was born in South India and worked for a risk management company. They met at a friend’s party in 2016 and had already married in a civil ceremony at city hall. The Hindu ceremony in New Jersey followed a mehndi party on 18 July 2019. The grooms wore outfits by the designer Anita Dongre, and the photographs were taken by Charmi Peña and Paulo Salud. Both men come from traditional families, and Aditya said: “For us, it didn’t seem complete until we had a chance to conduct the proper Hindu prayers.” He added that while they were planning, they had not realised that a same-sex wedding at a temple would be groundbreaking.
Sources: The Irish News, 28 July 2019: Two grooms go viral after sharing photos of their traditional Hindu wedding HuffPost India: These two grooms got married in a strikingly beautiful Hindu wedding
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