My name is Marianne Taylor, and I live where the ocean meets the sky on the rugged Atlantic coast of Cornwall, South West England.
‘I went for a walk in Regent’s Park yesterday morning, and it suddenly struck me how absurd it was to stay in London, with Cornwall going on all the time.’
She was right, of course. Eventually, I came.
WHO I AM AND WHAT I DO
I’ve created pictures for as long as I can remember, and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of the joy that it brings me. My philosophy in life is that there is beauty to be found in everything and everyone, and that capturing and remembering those all-important moments – whether big or small – is what adds some magic into life.
What sets my heart on fire is showing people how beautiful and worthy they are. How precious their relationships are. How much they mean to each other. That has been true since the very beginning, and it remains true now.
I photograph women marking a moment that deserves to be remembered. Families on holiday in Cornwall who want something more lasting than the photos on their phones. Couples who want an hour to stop and actually be with each other. And local businesses who need images that tell their story with honesty and warmth.
My style is soft, romantic, and unhurried. My sessions are relaxed. And Cornwall, as you may already be discovering, turns out to be the most extraordinary place on earth to be photographed.
THE YEARS BEFORE CORNWALL
For a long time, I was known as a wedding photographer.
For most of the 2010s I was inside what felt like a heady whirlwind of that world, photographing weddings across the UK, Europe, and beyond; speaking at photography festivals; running workshops; mentoring other photographers. In 2012 I was named the national winner for Best Wedding Photographer at The Wedding Industry Awards. My work was published regularly in magazines such as Cosmopolitan Bride, Wedding, Perfect Wedding, Wedding Flowers and You & Your Wedding. My personal photography has been published on book covers, featured in exhibitions, and was part of a show at Tate Britain.
I was also deeply involved in the early development of a new approach to couples photography, a technique built around genuine connection rather than posed performance, using playful and reflective prompts to draw out real emotion. I helped build workshops for it across Europe and the United States, developed a teacher training programme, and even created a physical magazine. It was meaningful, pioneering work, and I was proud of it.
And then I burned out.
Not gradually, completely. After years of travelling the world, shooting weddings, talking at festivals, offering workshops, my health and nervous system could not take the pace anymore. So I did something people thought was strange: I walked away. At the height of my career, I walked all the way to Cornwall, and I built a smaller life.
That smaller life allowed me to pause. To heal. To remember why I picked up a camera in the first place.
THE YEARS IN BETWEEN
During those years, this website was floating around aimlessly, but I never stopped working, I just worked differently. I turned to commercial and product photography, building a studio practice under the name HIYA MARIANNE. I’ve worked with brands big and small, shot products and models, created stop-motion animation. It was precise, creative work, and I am good at it. But it is lonely work with long days locked in a studio. Work without deeper meaning, without personal stories, without the particular electricity that comes from photographing a real person in a real moment.
After nearly a decade of that, I found myself missing it. Not the weddings, not the pace, not the pressure, not the performing for entire days in a row. But the people. The privilege of being trusted with someone’s story. The way a photograph can hold a moment so completely that you can step back into it, years later, and feel exactly what you felt then.
So I’ve come back to that work. On my own terms, at my own pace, in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
WHY THIS, WHY NOW
I am not trying to rebuild what I had before. What I had before was extraordinary, and it cost me everything I had to give.
What I’m building now is something more sustainable and, I think, more meaningful. Fewer, slower sessions. Work that matters to the people in front of my lens and to me behind it. Work that invites other people to fall in love with Cornwall.
The family sessions capture something that no one can get back once it’s gone. The Siren of the Sea sessions offer women a reason to celebrate how incredible they are. The Together Sessions draw on everything I learned about what makes couples genuinely connect, and the results are images that look like love actually looks, not like love performing for a camera.
A FEW THINGS I LOVE
real smiles / visually inspiring films / live music / the colour turquoise / the sea / my fluffy cats / old cameras / uplifting quotes / pretty knick-knacks / Venice in Autumn / magical gardens / my husband’s eyes / Cornish clifftops / tummy-hurting giggles / meaningful midnight conversations / wild flowers / beautiful design / warm sand under bare feet / vintage globes / the smell of a fresh magazine / sparkly shoes / vintage china / the sound of wind in the leaves / people who are true to themselves
WHAT I DO NOW
You can find all the services I currently offer here.
For commercial and product photography, visit HIYA MARIANNE
For personal branding and visual identity, visit HIYA VIBES