In the early stages of planning your wedding you’ll start to think about the photography you want. You might start to think about the what is the best style of wedding photography for you, and while that can be a useful way of filtering your search, it shouldn’t be the only thing on your check list. And certainly, if you are only searching for a particular buzzword, you’ll often find yourself disappointed by someone telling you they are “fine art” or “reportage” or “traditional” but doesn’t have the work to back that up. It can be misleading and frustrating. So just what is the best style of wedding photography?
There can be a tendency to think any “fine art wedding photographer” will be the same as the next one. That they will all basically do the same thing. Perhaps that is true for many. But if they’re all taking the same photos it’s pretty homogeneous, manufactured, so you probably won’t like them too much to begin with… try narrowing your search further.
Respect your own opinion!
Try looking at the work carefully, as this is what you’ll be left with.
You need to connect with it.
Does the photographer understand who you are? You need to see this in the work.
Let’s really look at it .
How do we look at photography?
Rudolf Arnheim was one of the most influential art historian & psychologists in America, he taught at Harvard, and wrote several pivotal books including Art & Visual Perception (1954, and still in print). Arnheim said that we look at paintings through everyday observations, and this is how we look at photography, through everyday observations. Certainly, our own experiences (and culture, knowledge, etc) will always shape how we see things. But a photograph describes the world in such an unrelentingly stringent way that we’re forced to simply see what has been seen.
Alongside music, it’s a universal language.
You will likely find yourself connecting with the image, or simply not.
Many of my clients describe how I photograph their wedding days as observational. So to some extent what is seen is photographed. But with my work I’m not there to simply photograph the world as it passes by in a ferociously literal sense, after all, a photograph is a new creation, not the original subject itself.
I am also an author.
I can say something with a photograph. Express a feeling, make a statement, a commentary on social happenings, a psychological insight.
So when you look at something as important as the photography that will form some of the best memories you’ll have with your loved ones, make sure you look at the work and properly consider it – this is the first and most important step.
Not just a vague attempt at a style, but look at the photograph itself.
Does it speak to you? What does it say? If it really resonates with you, you’re onto a good thing.
.jpg)
Take this photograph above as an example.
Not a wedding photograph, but pulled from everyday life.
We can look at it through some everyday observations.
We can see this is a train station platform by the graphics above, the usual structures, and people hanging around waiting. Not an exciting event, it’s a mundane routine for many people. The subject is obviously the couple to the left – why? Because they’re sharing an embrace, a delicate kiss. In the most ordinary of places. You’ll also notice the blurred, reflective object entering on the left, which we can guess is a train arriving at speed, enhancing the feeling of something becoming. And just as quickly as it arrives, it can be gone… or in this case obscured by the view of the passing train, assuming we see such moments at all. You can see the older gentleman sat right next to them looking quite begrudged at the idea of others sharing romance in such circumstances. The man at the back lost in his phone. And the person to the right waiting patiently for his next destination.
You can’t love the photograph without realising the idea of such a moment coming and going so quickly amongst such everyday circumstances. The thought that even when we’re caught barely engaging with the world, fiddling on our phone (without doing anything at all), waiting for something to happen for us, or even when we’re just caught in our own frustrations… the thought that a photograph can pull from the world such a beautiful moment in such simple and mundane situations.
This isn’t a style or even about a style.
It’s simply about the photograph.
What do you want your wedding photographs to say to you?
