Dalmare Photo - wedding photographer - Spain

Why book?

Jordi Dalmau came to weddings from graphic design, and it shows in every frame. As the eye behind Dalmare Photo, he reads a wedding day in light, lines and negative space, with architecture often playing the quiet second lead to the couple. His work is editorial and intentional without ever feeling staged: no forced poses, no recycled shot lists. Every collaboration is a tailor-made experience, designed around each couple... something you feel not only in the final gallery, but in every step of working with him. Shooting film alongside digital, he brings a slower, more deliberate rhythm to celebrations across Barcelona, the Costa Brava and destination weddings throughout Spain and Europe. His work has been featured in international wedding publications. If you're planning a multi-day celebration in Spain and want images that feel more like an art book than an album, Dalmare Photo is your match.

Reviewed by Junebug Weddings

Q&A

Connect with this vendor by getting to know them beyond their work.

What is your specialty or personal style?

I came to weddings from graphic design, and I never really left it behind. I read a wedding day in light, lines and empty space, and architecture usually ends up being my second subject after the couple. People call it editorial. I call it intentional. I shoot film alongside digital because it forces me to slow down and commit to the frame. Nothing is templated: every wedding I photograph across Barcelona, the Costa Brava and the rest of Spain is built from scratch around the couple, from the first call to the final gallery.

Couples hire you because…

They've seen enough weddings that all look the same. Most couples who write to me are planning something in Spain from another country, often over several days, and they want images that hold up in ten years rather than photos that look like this year. They hire me for the design eye. They stay because of how the whole thing feels: a tailor made experience, one wedding at a time, with a preview gallery in their inbox the week after the wedding and someone who actually answers his own emails.

Describe the personalities of the couples you get along best with.

The ones who are curious. They've thought about the venue, the light, the flowers and the font on the menu, and they're excited to talk about it. They tend to be relaxed on the day and unbothered by a schedule, because they trust the people they chose. Many of them are marrying far from home, with everyone they love flying in for a few days, and they'd rather have the whole story of that than a checklist of poses. If that sounds like you, we'll get along.

What is your communication style?

Direct, and in whatever language you're most comfortable in. I work in English, Spanish and Catalan, and I've picked up enough French along the way. Most of my couples are planning from another country and never meet me in person before the wedding, so I try to make that feel like a non issue. You get me answering my own emails, not a studio inbox, and no question is too small. Before the day we build the timeline together, so nobody is guessing when the light will be good. And I'd rather tell you honestly that something won't work than agree to everything and disappoint you in the gallery.

How did you get your start in the wedding industry?

Through the back door. I trained and worked as a graphic designer, which is where I learned to look at composition, negative space and type. Then I picked up a camera and discovered that a wedding day is full of exactly those problems, only moving and impossible to art direct. I shot my first weddings for people I knew, kept the design brain, and never went back. More than 120 weddings later it's still the same job to me: making order out of a day that refuses to hold still.

What part of your business are you best at?

Reading a room before anything happens in it. I usually know where the good light will be at seven, where the toast will go sideways, and which uncle is about to do something worth photographing, because I've spent the whole day watching. It's the least glamorous skill in this job and the one that decides how the gallery turns out. The editing matters too, and I do all of it myself, but you can't rescue in post a moment you weren't standing in the right place for.

Is there a wedding destination or type that’s on your bucket list right now?

Two things, and they're opposites. One is a wedding on the Costa Brava in November or February — the light here in the off-season is the best of the year and almost nobody uses it. The other is a proper multi-day celebration somewhere I've never worked: the Azores, northern Portugal, a Greek island in the off-season. I like arriving somewhere without knowing where the good corners are. It's uncomfortable, and it's when I shoot best.

What achievement, moment, or success are you most proud of in your career?

Honestly, not an award. It's the couples who come back. The ones I photographed at their wedding who write two years later for a pregnancy shoot, or who send me their friends getting married in Spain. In a job where most clients hire you exactly once, someone choosing you a second time is the only review that really counts.

What is your favorite thing to do when not working?

Looking at things that have nothing to do with weddings. Architecture and design books, mostly. I still buy more of those than photography ones. Surfing, being in the water, keeping moving. And the Costa Brava in winter, when it's empty and grey and much better than the postcard version, which is usually when the waves are good anyway. Everything I've ever stolen for my work came from somewhere outside it.

Photographers

Planners

Videographers

Venues

Florists

All Vendors