The History of Reportage Wedding Photography

Reportage Wedding Photography is still thought bylow-ish light) became a signature "look" found in Time
many to be a recent trend in photography. In fact itmagazine and other iconic journals.
has a long heritage and was often called candidNaturally, wedding photography started to borrow
photography in the context of a wedding. Seen bythis look and start demanding the grainy black and
extreme traditionalists (a rare breed now) as a newwhite look. The grain is of course a form of visual
fad, it was felt to threaten the supremacy of theartefact - a distortion of the truth in reality. Today's
medium format camera with its staged shots andtechnology now takes this several steps further with
posed set ups.the equivalent of ISO 102,000 available on some
In the old style, photographers always had a bigmachines. A shot at ISO 6400 is now considered
camera set up on a tripod and even a hood over theroutine - affording incredible reportage wedding
head of the photographer. This Very formal and veryphotography options to the photographer - with no
posed art of portraiture was born, like so many ofgrain in sight.
today's cultural norms, of technological limitations.At times the modern, digital photographer is asked to
Way back when, photographic technology requiredadd a simulation of celluloid film grain to otherwise
long exposure times, long winded plate or filmpristine photograph. Although it can look great, it is an
changes and "keep still" poses. Fast 35 mm filmintriguing fact of aesthetics that a photograph can
basically solved this problem, again with certainseem more timeless and real with artefacts added to
limitations. Lighter cameras holding rolls meant thatit.
photojournalistic techniques could be applied toPart of the maturation of reportage wedding
wedding photography.photography has to be the evolution of the Wedding
The game changer was that wedding photographyAlbum. Rather than present the married couple with a
needed no longer to be posed. Wedding Photographysimple book with best pictures placed in order of
could now become Reportage Photography. Preciouspreference, the wedding photographer's task now
moments, unrepeatable in a pose are only possibleincludes the design and layout of a book that well tell
with the participants being unaware that a camera isthe story of the wedding. Photographs are placed in
in use. Fast film offered this to a degree, althougha digitally printed book, in chronological order. Each
the fastest film was ISO 1600 or 3200 and werephoto relates to each other photo as part of a linear
very grainy. In fact the grain produced by fast filmstory, bringing vividly back the memories of the big
(which enabled action freezing photojournalism inday.