Close-up couples portrait on Brighton seafront by Jackson Grant, a woman in a red sequin suit with her partner behind

Thrive Brighton 2026 | Day Two Photo Session

Jackson Grant at Thrive

The humour-led couples portrait session

no smoochie sunsets allowed

Humour. Movement. Personality.

“Good luck taking a backseat the entire day and just waiting for happy accidents. It just doesn’t work for me and it really never has” – JACKSON GRANT

Some speakers arrive at Thrive with a brief. Jackson Grant arrived with a manifesto.

His session description promised humour-led, prop-heavy imagery, a queer couple draped head to toe in sequin-saturated suits, and one very clear rule: “There is to be NO lovey-dovey smoochie sunset BS.” If you know his work, you’ll know he meant every word.

Jackson is a Melbourne-based wedding photographer whose images are loud, colourful and gloriously unapologetic. They’re also far more considered than they first look. Behind every bit of chaos in his frames there’s a plan, and that’s exactly what he came to Brighton to teach.

What’s easy to miss when you scroll past a JGW image is how little of it is left to chance. It looks spontaneous. It looks lucky. It isn’t.

Jackson has very little patience for the idea of hanging back and hoping. Candid, in his view, has become a word some photographers hide behind – a reason to take a back seat rather than risk feeling invasive. He’d much rather turn up with ideas, get stuck in, and give his couples something to react to. That takes confidence, and it’s a confidence he’s built by trusting his own way of working.

“You just kind of got to stay in your lane, back yourself, and understand that people are coming to you for a particular reason.”

For his Thrive session, Jackson took over Brighton seafront with a couple in bespoke suits brought all the way from Down Under – one in scarlet, one in white embroidered with red florals – and treated the whole seafront like a props cupboard.

Fish and chips from the takeaway. A towering ice cream on the beach. A hotel luggage trolley outside the conference venue. A row of bollards that became a dance floor. Very Brighton, and very Jackson.

Nothing about it was a stiff portrait session. Jackson describes his couples work as feeling like “an endless, joyful dance”, and you can see it in every frame – movement first, personality always, and everything built to make the couple have fun rather than just pose.

He believes every folio deserves movement-based, personality-fuelled compositions, and these images make the case for him. High kicks, leaps, a cheeky lick of an ice cream, a chip held up like a trophy. It’s ridiculous in the best possible way, and none of it is accidental.

What stands out is how relaxed it all looks. Jackson isn’t scrambling for ideas or chasing the light. He’s already done that thinking, so on the day he’s free to direct with humour, stay present, and react when something even better turns up.

It was truly refreshing to spend time with Jackson and to learn from him.

Stop Waiting for Happy Accidents

Candid is one of the most overused words in our industry. It’s on websites, in Instagram bios and all over enquiry replies, and Jackson made a fair point about it: sometimes it’s less a style and more a reason to stay out of the way.

There’s nothing wrong with documentary work. But there’s a big difference between choosing to observe and simply hoping something good happens in front of you.

Jackson’s images show what happens when you turn up with intent. He’s thought about the location, the props, the outfits and the personalities before he ever lifts the camera, which means on the day he can relax into the fun instead of hunting for it.

That’s a skill you can learn, and Jackson taught it.

THRIVE

THE SESSION EXPERIENCE

What We Learned From Jackson Grant

Question the questionnaire. That was Jackson’s big lesson, and it’s one I think every wedding photographer needs to hear.

We spend so little time flexing our creative muscle. Most of us send couples the same questionnaire we’ve used for years – timings, names, family groups – and then wonder why our portraits look like everyone else’s. Jackson rewrites his questions so couples answer laterally, opening the door to their lives, their sense of humour, and the slightly odd things that make them who they are.

That gives him the material to storyboard something properly character-fuelled before the wedding. It changes the experience for the couple too. They feel seen long before the day, and they arrive knowing their photographer gets them.

“I want to try and lean into the confidence that stems from just preemptive photography. The photos don’t actually take that much time because I’ve already thought about where and what I’m going to do.”

Jackson also talked about his own transitional phase – the point where the way he photographs finally lined up with his personality and his couples’ personalities. Unrushed, planned and full of joy. If your work feels like it belongs to someone else, questioning your questionnaire is a brilliant place to start.

Couple in red and white sequin suits standing on the wet promenade in Brighton, by Jackson Grant at Thrive

Experience Thrive for Yourself

If you want to learn from photographers like Jackson – people making bold, brilliant work and willing to show you exactly how they think – then Thrive is where you need to be.

Thrive Edinburgh is on 20-21 April 2027.

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