Christina + Valentin Couple Shoot

Chris + Vale

A Couple Inspiring Change

 

One of my favorite aspects of living in London is meeting amazing people from all over the world. Christina and Valentin, or Chris and Vale, are a couple from different countries, and met doing what they love in a different country. Stories like these make my heart melt, as they show the random beautiful things that are possible when you open your mind and your heart up to the world.

Chris is from Cyprus, and Vale is from Italy, and now both live and work from their eclectic home in North London. Together they run a small NGO Xarkis, which envisages a society that explores, investigates, hybridizes, celebrates, experiments with and re-defines aspects of local culture, in ways that may have a positive social impact.

How they met…

Chris and Vale met in an isolated village in Malaga, Mollina, Spain nearly three years ago. They were both involved in week-long parallel human rights seminars in different subjects. On the second night of the program, they met listening to live world music and dancing. For the rest of the program, they bumped into eachother, and spent time together each day. Not sure where this new relationship would go, they both tried to keep their cool, and not let on too much how they were starting to feel. To Chris’ surprise, after the program Vale bought a one-way ticket to Cyprus, after only eight days of knowing eachother. They’ve been together ever since.

Spending the morning photographing these two was a special occasion for me. They are so visibly in love that I felt happier just being around them. From their goofy warm personalities, to their passion for humam rights, Chris and Vale are a wonderful couple with big hearts and lots of love to give.

A few kind words from Chris:

The whole experience and interaction with Hannah was organic and felt special. She made us feel comfortable, and in turn her photographs captured the best versions of ourselves. Moreover, her well crafted photographs ooze serenity. We are thankful for this experience and would happily be photographed by her again!

-Christina

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