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Rita Kovtun

@ritakovtun

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(cove-tune)
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photography as witnessing 🤲🏼
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booking sessions in NC, MN, OH📸
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Russian born 🪆 Minnesota raised 🐟 Asheville based 🌄
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music @heyritka
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To get to hear the words of @gradylee77 all over again - I wasnt sure what I’d remember 365 days out from our wedding day. So we get to have this magic from @ritakovtun on our first anniversary! SUPER8! Grady’s gorgeous words. @spectaclecaseband song. Marrying @forrestwasko !!!! Happy anniversary to the other half of my heart. by @ritakovtun

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4 months ago

🍂 Mini Sessions in my Yard! 🍂
This Sat/Sun, Oct 17–18
West Asheville (address provided upon booking)

The fall light is *chef’s kiss* right now and I’d love to photograph you in my big, beautiful yard in West Asheville. I open up short portrait sessions like this a few times a year, and this is the perfect opportunity to get a renewed professional portrait or to just capture a moment in time. Individuals, couples, and families are all welcome. Recent portrait of my lovely neighbor and friend @peytonsj in my yard!

I think everyone deserves to have a beautiful portrait of themselves, and I do my best to make the experience not only painless but also comfortable and joyful. I see getting portraits made of you as an act of self-care! Details below. DM me to inquire + book 💌

25 minutes
10 final images (digital + film)
Additional images available if desired
$275–325 sliding scale by @ritakovtun

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14 hours ago

I shot so much film this summer and haven’t posted much of it! So here are some dreamy frames from my one visit to the Laurel this year. It’s a special place for me, and after attending @avlzinefest, I’m feeling inspired to put together a little book of my images from there? 👀

Thanks to @glimpsing_seth for the expired film that produced these hazy colors and of course to @ballphotosupply for the develop/scan! taken in Laurel River Trail by @ritakovtun

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7 days ago

I've been feeling all of the things with our recent threshold crossing into fall and thinking of this playful, magical Seeing Session with @sheanicolemckibben last autumn equinox in Bent Creek ✨

The first time I met @sheanicolemckibben was at a marigold-themed artist market years and years ago. I remember being enchanted by both her lovely herbal offerings as well as her inward and outward beauty, and I went home with some of her incredible "slow burn" rose + frankincense loose incense.

We kept crossing paths over the years and I started receiving deeply nourishing massages from Shea (check out @bloodrootholistics!) and in winter '24-'25, I joined an Artist's Way group she organized. I had always admired Shea's creativity from afar, and in those months I felt honored to walk the twists and turns of the creative path together with her and a handful of other women.

I was so delighted when Shea expressed interest in a photo session, and we made it happen at the perfect time, I think. This time of year is always so special and bittersweet, as we say goodbye to summer and let the soft endings of autumn take their course. Thank you Shea for your collaboration and trust with these special equinox photos! I love looking back at them a year later.

p.s. There is a surprise video animation in this post! Images shot on digital and expired #kodakultramax400 film, developed by @ballphotosupply 💛🍂 #ashevilleportraitphotographer #portraitphotography #seeingsession #bentcreekforest #ashevilleportraits taken in Bent Creek Experimental Forest by @ritakovtun

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12 days ago

Before the summer is completely over (and the beautiful goldenrod fades away!), here are some experimental double exposure film portraits from @emilybellistri's very cute camp-themed bachelorette weekend in central Minnesota in July. What a joy to celebrate Emily + @feral_mike just over a week ago and to spend so much time in the Midwest this summer (I miss the lakes, y'all). Congratulations to the newlyweds! (and more photos of that to come) 🎉 taken in Mora, Minnesota by @ritakovtun

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a month ago

So glad that @floraleonora and @glimpsing_seth (and Tulie!) snuck away with me to catch this breathtaking golden hour light at @lwretreatnc during their beautiful mid-July wedding. Earlier that day a friend led a flower + water blessing ceremony, on this land that had been so affected by Helene. It felt powerful to pour our love into this place and laugh with its waters. Excited to share more images from this special day ✨
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#ashevilleweddingphotographer #laughingwaters #documentaryweddingphotography #ashevilleweddings #weddingphotography taken in Laughing Waters and Hickory Nut Forest by @ritakovtun

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a month ago

I’ve curated a new playlist I’m calling “shoot from the heart”—a title taken from one of the included songs. I’ve been spinning these tunes throughout the summer, and this playlist feels like an encapsulation of this time, with all of its heart expansions and heartbreaks, big and small ❤️‍🔥 It includes some songs that are pretty old, pretty new, and somewhere in between—including those by local faves @lowsideavl and @natalie.jane.hill (and of course one by Dolly 🦋). Follow the link in my bio to listen in these remaining summer days 🌻 Film double exposure from a walk in my new West Asheville neighborhood toward the start of summer, shot on my favorite @kodak #ektar100 film. Develop + scan by @ballphotosupply. by @ritakovtun

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a month ago

It’s hard to put into words (and today, I don’t have a lot of them) what @primrosecoke’s Tea Tent means to me, so here are some photos. Hopefully you can feel my love through them. If they spark something in you, I invite you to the Tea Tent Fête this Saturday. A day of tea, live music, and puppetry on the island in Marshall. A way to support this incredible offering that Primrose brings to our community. So many artists will be sharing their magic. I’ll play a short set of Russian songs around 5 and sing with @mothermarrow as they perform some incredible crankies at 5:30. Come gather with us as we put Leo to bed 🎪☕️🎶🦁 taken in Marshall High Studios by @ritakovtun

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2 months ago

Mel + Ben celebrated their first wedding anniversary just a few days ago, and I’m looking back at the photos I made on that sun-filled day at @windingstaircampground—and at all of the special little details that made their day theirs. The family tree, the rings and flower girl baskets made by Ben, the ring pillow embroidered by Mel’s mom, the blooming black-eyed Susans, Mel’s blue velvet shoes, Ben’s leather boots, their whimsical cake, Mel’s intricate dress, and all of the beautiful flowers. So here’s a post dedicated to all those little moments and touches that made their wedding a true reflection of them and their community. How I love getting to notice and preserve all of these little pieces 💖
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#ashevilleweddingphotographer #weddingdetails #documentaryweddingphotography #ashevilleweddings #windingstaircampground taken in Winding Stair Campground by @ritakovtun

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2 months ago

These photos are from three years ago, the last time @danifreakinfresh came to town to visit @frances_bukovsky and me. She was back again yesterday, and we had a beautiful day of butterflies, cold mountain streams, surprise rain showers, show and tell, kitty scritches, and of course, hot dogs. So glad that photography bootcamp in a swampy Georgia summer (almost a decade ago!) brought us together, Dani, and that @kinshipphotographycollective connected us both with Frances. Grateful for the depth and support you have both brought to my visual practice, and for your friendship 💚

These photos were taken on medium format film—thanks @marra.craft for lending me your camera! taken in Weaverville, North Carolina by @ritakovtun

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2 months ago

Today is a special day. In honor of what would have been my friend Dave Hamilton’s 40th birthday, I’m releasing a song inspired by his passing. I wrote “Feel It All” in the wake of Dave’s death in the spring of 2025. Prior to losing Dave, I had lost older family members, but his death hit different. I met Dave in @resound.community.choir in the fall of 2024, right after Helene had so intensely rearranged us all in WNC, physically and emotionally, and was instantly smitten. He had a sparkle in his eye, a zeal for making music, and deep care for the people and land he was in community with. Over the next few months, Dave and I grew a budding friendship and brief romance. Although we weren’t in each other’s daily lives, he left a deep impression on me, and my heart was shattered when I received the news that he had taken his life.

This song is a heart offering. Although it is about Dave, it asks the questions that I imagine most people face in a period of deep grief: What is there left to do? What is there left to do, but to weave beauty from it all? But to feel it all? I think most of us know this: Grief is so hard, but it also opens us up to the full spectrum of available emotion. In the weeks after Dave’s death, I felt incredible sadness, and I also felt moments of incredible joy and ove.

Endless gratitude to all those who helped me birth this song into the world. @mlesprg for the Florist show at @ayurpanalisteningroom in those first weeks that cracked me open and gave me the oomph to finish writing this song. @doctor.delia for tracking my guitar and vocals at Humming House exactly a month after Dave’s passing; for lending your violin magic to this tune (an instrument Dave played as well); for seeing me and holding me through the grief and the journey of this song. Eric Schackne for opening your heart to this project despite never meeting Dave; deftly combining my ideas and yours to make it come alive; finessing the song until it felt right and getting it over the finish line with the mix and master. (cont in comments) taken in Asheville, North Carolina by @ritakovtun

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3 months ago

Carolyn and Joe’s end-of-May wedding, held at their new home in Sylva, was so incredibly full of joy and love. Truly, I was smiling ear to ear the whole day (while shedding a tear or two). In our final call leading up to the wedding, Carolyn explained their “Hawaiiappalachian” theme: “We just really didn’t want people to dress up fancy, and our best way of conveying this was to make it Hawaiian shirt themed.” 🌺

I met C+J through a few other couples in the same friend group whose weddings I photographed last year, and felt an instant connection. Since then, I’ve rarely seen either of them without a smile or a full-belly laugh. They’re both talented musicians (they originally met at the Mount Airy Fiddlers’ Convention), and on their wedding day they were surrounded by fellow music-makers. From honky tonk to square dancing to bluegrass boom bap, there was always a tune in the air 🎶

So honored to have documented this whimsical celebration on a perfect cusp-of-summer day. Catering by @foragerscanteen. Photographed on a mix of digital, film, and Polaroid.
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#ashevilleweddingphotographer #documentaryweddingphotographer
#wncweddingphotographer #ashevillewedding #wncweddingphotographer taken in Sylva, North Carolina by @ritakovtun

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3 months ago