The Quality Makers: Majo + Xavi of La Dichosa

Barcelona-based fashion and wedding photographers Majo + Xavi have been married for the past 10 years, and have been shooting together ever since. Their collaborative efforts have actually led them to find their own sense of style. As people whose hearts are moved by beautiful things: amazing architecture, great interior design pieces, sustainable fashion and of course, love, they’ve traveled the world together – photographing it all on their way. Named one of the best photographers by Elle and The Lane, and published in Vogue US, Harper's Bazaar, People, Hello, Ignant and Architectural Digest, Majo + Xavi believe that when they, as artists, photograph what they are passionate about, freely and from the heart, there is truly no limit to creativity. Read more of their story below.

Can you introduce yourselves & La Dichosa?

We are Majo & Xavi, based in a little town close to Barcelona, Spain. Majo is from Argentina and I (Xavi) am from Spain. We met almost 20 years ago and have been married for 10 years.

We started our photography business, La Dichosa, 10 years ago, and since then we have been shooting together, from weddings to architectural and fashion spaces. We get to travel the world for our work and we feel very lucky to do so, especially together. 

What is it that sparked your interest to start this space? How are your personal journeys related to the creation of your platform?

We’ve always traveled with our cameras, even when our day jobs were totally different to a creative field. We started this journey with travel photography because as we were discovering amazing places, our photos always included people, mostly portraits. This need to photograph people and our obsession for fashion and design led us to start shooting weddings as well. The opportunity to work in fashion came later, luckily with some brands we love. A few years ago, we also started working with architecture and interior design spaces, as it’s one of our dearest passions. Secretly, we both have always wanted to study architecture! As photography is such a free space, we can make the world a bit more perfect and definitely more joyful through our lens. We hope people that see our work also feel happier – at least that is our intention. 

What led you to wedding and fashion photography?

Weddings encompass everything we love! And after only a few years of shooting weddings we started receiving quite a lot of brand inquiries asking if we could photograph for them. They were curious to see if we could apply the same sense of photography style to the fashion world, and luckily that transition felt really natural to the both of us. We love that moment where we post a photo and people can’t tell if it’s from a wedding shoot or a fashion shoot – blurring that line is really fun. We tend to work with brands that are aligned with our own values. Knowing that makes our work even better, as we get to project the beauty of a brand/product via our eyes.

What are your personal styles shaped by? Do you believe that your collective work is a collaboration of both of your styles?

We have very similar tastes. Sometimes, even when we shoot away from each other, we take the same exact photo, or focus on the same detail or shading, without knowing it. That’s probably the natural result of spending so many hours together! But we also know how lucky we are to have each other, to consult on a creative idea or business decision. We’ve tried working separately in the past, but it’s much more boring and our creative juices just don’t flow in the same way.

I’d love to hear more about your creation process. How much do you work in collaboration with the subjects of your photography – with those getting married, for example?

We plan each wedding as if it was a brand campaign. Even though we have our own style, we never shoot any two weddings in the same way. With wedding shoots, we incorporate our couples’ taste and personalities as much as we can, that's why we’re constantly talking with them throughout the whole process. With architects, for example, we study their style and intention, and build a personality around it before photographing them. 

Where does your inspiration come from?

We try to surround ourselves with beauty in our everyday lives. We believe that what you see affects your creativity, which is why our home is a reflection of ourselves. During Covid, we ended up in several Airbnbs in Spain, and we realized how much your environment's colors, shapes and lights can directly affect your mood. Every piece we buy for our house is carefully selected, we always ask ourselves how it makes us feel. We also adore magazines, Kinfolk being one of our favorites, and we watch a lot of movies. Traveling is a way for us to get more creative, as travel allows us to live in the moment, fully aware of our surroundings. One of our last trips was to Naoshima,  Japan, and we spent hours in museums gathering ideas and developing them further back home.

What differentiates you from other photographers in the industry? What makes you unique?

We believe that everyone is unique. In our industry, we tend to see a lot of the same images or trends, but we try to stay away from that. Being authentic is the only way in which we’ll grow. We’re exposed to so many images on social media everyday and that can get really overwhelming. That’s why we’ve become quite selective and careful about the imagery we consume. The minute you are getting creative, your brain will go to the last images you saw, so it is important to curate your own consumption. We are lucky enough to know that people enjoy the work we do, and that in itself is such a joy! We love creating for them.

What do you hope people will take away from your photos?

We hope that people feel joyous and peaceful when engaging with our work. That the images we create have a positive impact on everyone. That all those we photograph feel unique and beautiful in their own way, because everybody is! We also want to encourage positive consumption, with brands and products that really last and have a positive impact on the planet and the people creating them.

What are your hopes / visions / dreams for the future and growth of La Dichosa?

We feel so lucky to be able to create freely in our work. We hope that our clients continue granting us this creative freedom and trusting our vision, so that we can bring people joy with our photography. We also love design – we’re actually in the midst of developing a side brand featuring some special products we love and want to share with the world, so stay tuned!

Hire the brilliant duo, Majo + Xavi of La Dichosa, here!