I had a few things to talk about this week, the first was that I’ve been told “reportage is the new spot colour” and that definitely needs some discussion… I don’t fully disagree but clearly that’s preposterous… or is it? Ruminate on that, and I’ll do the same. The second is the ever-present discussion around pricing and the “you’re too cheap” adage which, honestly, I hate. So both of these topics will be discussed at a later date! Myths will be busted.
But last week I promised to talk more about my lack-of-method-method of wedding photography. So here we are.
Obviously, logistically a wedding day is split into sections, right? Prep, ceremony, drinks reception (cocktail hour if you’re not a Brit), groups, portraits, meal, speeches, first dance, dance floor, sunset shots, night shots.
That doesn’t mean you have to photograph it that way.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t photograph it that way. I’m saying these aren’t actually separate elements of a day or separate stories to tell, in my view. This isn’t a set of rules or boundaries you have to subscribe to or follow.
A wedding day is and can be just a random flow of chaos to be documented in whatever way we as individual artists see fit. We are all doing it correctly.
Of course, that has to be combined with how you ‘sell’ your approach to your clients right from the enquiry meeting through to the pre-wedding meeting. If you’re a traditional methodical shooter who produces a similar collection for each couple, then you can’t just start showing up and shooting random stuff.
But, like I did, over time you can move your approach away from that prescriptive approach to a less methodical, more fluid/free way of shooting.
That’s if you want to. You definitely don’t have to.
Let me tell you briefly why I shoot this way.
To me, true documentary photography is being open to whatever is happening, and turning it into a photo, or a series of photos. It actually doesn’t matter that it’s a wedding.
Unfortunately over the years ‘wedding documentary’ photography became a caricature of certain moments… *must not rant about awards again*
Exhibit A – ‘the dad sees the bride in her dress and gets emotional’.
Exhibit B – ‘the groom doing something emotional while bride, out of focus, walks down the aisle’.
There are more exhibits, and this isn’t me judging at all I promise. I’ve taken these photos, I’ve attempted to stage these photos many many times, I’ve hung all my hopes on getting one of these photos so I could enter it in one of the awards which perpetuates the need and desire for these specific moment photos (/rant/ should probably delete). I’ve judged awards where 50% of the entries were these two moments over and over and over. No joke.
However…
What if we’re busy staging/semi-staging/waiting for a ‘dad reaction’ photo but the real story at that moment is something else?
Same goes for the ‘groom reaction’.
What if we’re so fixated on getting that ‘award winner’ attention photo that we aren’t open to the other story/stories happening at that moment.
These are two of the most specific examples I could think of. And please – don’t think this is me saying ‘stop taking photos of dads and grooms’. Sometimes that is the story, for sure. And when it’s the story, if you move mentally away from prescriptive and lean into instinctive, you’ll know that’s the story when that is the story and you’ll capture it, authentically and organically.
But when it’s not the story, you’ll know it’s not, and you’ll feel where the story actually is and capture that instead. To me, that’s the true beauty of documentary photography.
There is no specific moment I aim to capture at any wedding. I have zero hopes or expectations. I let it be what it wants to be. I trust my instincts, I lean into them, and I capture the real story for my couples.
Thanks for reading, happy clicking!
Adam
PS – I bought a used car. It’s a car I’ve wanted for a while and my lease of my old car (which I hated) just ended, so I decided to buy one. It’s 10 years old so I didn’t expect it to be entirely straightforward but honestly, I can see why people hate buying used cars. I feel conned and robbed daily at the moment. Make it stop.
PPS – Sugar quitting is going ok. Ups and downs. I’ve not eaten a single biscuit (my biggest vice) in two weeks. There is still some easter chocolate lying around though and I’m only human.
