TRASH THE DRESS CONTEST JUDGES

Portrait of Matt Adcock and Sol Tamargo

Photo by Susan Stripling

WPJA award-winners Sol Tamargo and Matt Adcock happen to be at the center of the Trash The Dress (TTD) movement, and are among its foremost practitioners. As a married couple who often work together on TTD sessions, they have no shortage of enthusiastic newlyweds anxious to experience this ritual, with the number of interested people growing by the week.

“It’s really getting popular,” says Matt, who with Sol and their associate photographers at Del Sol Photography shoot more than 100 weddings each year. “Last year we shot 22 TTD sessions, and at this point now we’ve already shot 30 and change, and we’ll still do 8 to 10 more. We’ve had 89 inquiries for the month of July, and at least half of them are interested in TTD.”

Drawing on this experience, Sol and Matt served as judges in the first-ever WPJA Trash the Dress contest, open to WPJA members to submit any TTD image created prior to 2008.

Take a look at the recently published Trash The Dress WedPix article. Sol and Matt were interviewed for the article and share their unique experiences of shooting Trash The Dress photo sessions on location.

“It’s really difficult to define the levels,” Matt says. “What is really considered ‘trash the dress’? How about sitting horseback? Is that actually trashing the dress? Yes it is, because a bride would not ordinarily ever get on a horse. If they have something unique, something they’ve seen or have been inspired to do, we’ll do it.”