Home Stories: Kelly Tunney

Posted on 6 April, 2018

Sometimes, being a third wheel is not such a bad thing.

You see, typically, our Home Stories photographer has no input into who we visit (I make those decisions, being the very important one and all of that). So, it was pretty cool to discover that our photographer Bel is quite a fan of Kelly Tunney’s highly acclaimed wedding photography. Early in our visit, I became the wobbly third passenger in the conversation. Anyway, here’s what I learned from the sidelines…

Kelly shares her home in Bruce with her husband Phil and son Hayden, plus their ever-present dog Ruby. Making cameos in almost every one of Bel’s shots, Ruby is clearly not camera-shy (clearly, she’s the perfect dog to belong to a photographer).

Kelly and Phil have lived there for over three years after a few years spent moving between northside suburbs. Their home is mostly a place of comfort and family life, but also doubles as a studio when Kelly is not working from her All Grown Up Weddings photography collective in Braddon’s Palko building.

Even though I was somewhat familiar with Kelly’s work, I actually didn’t realise how big she was. And when I say big, I don’t mean that she can walk into a booked restaurant and demand a table yelling ‘don’t you know who I am!?’. I mean that she is supremely in-demand for her original aesthetic, frequently flown to all corners of the globe to work her magic, lectures on photography, runs her own business, was the first female to win AIPP’s Australian Wedding Photographer of the Year, and has won too many other awards for me to list right now (trust me, we’ll be here for a while).

Despite her massive accolades, Kelly comes across as very humble. Her home reflects her warm, genuine and comfortable personality, contrasted with elements that clearly have a designer’s eye to them. Soft beige fabrics, warm dark timber tones, strong but simple patterns on rugs, sparing framed photos and album covers, plus the occasional coffee table book. It all makes for a place that just says ‘relax’… and that, they do. The wedding business can be quite full on, so Kelly needs the comfort to ensure she can sustain the pressure and still love it as much as when she first started it all.

When we were leaving, I asked Bel if she enjoyed meeting Kelly properly. She replied, “For sure, I’ve often admired and have been influenced by her ability to bring architecture into the human element”. That was quite a high-brow answer—really, a “yes Ashley, you’re the best for organising this” would have done, but then I remembered; I’m just the third wheel here.