Friday, March 21, 2008

THE EVOLUTION OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

Five generations of Americans have revisited special moments in their lives by looking through photographs, most especially of their wedding day. But early to mid-20th-century brides and grooms have only memories of their weddings because their photographers simply weren't there.


Early cameras were large and bulky and portable lighting equipment non-existent, tethering photographers -- and bridal portraits -- to studios. All that changed by World War II when the 35mm camera, roll film and on-camera flash hit the scene, transforming first war photography, then photojournalism and eventually wedding photography. After the war, military-trained photographers and amateurs trolled wedding parties snapping candid photos they'd sell to delighted bridal couples. That flushed wedding photographers out of the studio and onto the wedding day scene. But still, wedding pictures were posed and moments like cake slicing carefully staged.

Leafing through glossy magazines in 1940s and '50s, young couples and photographers began to see something new: candid, intimate photographs of celebrity and royal weddings taken by photojournalists. Sure, there were formal poses, but many photos captured the moment, for better or worse. Like the 1943 Life magazine photograph of 54-year-old, serious-faced Charlie Chaplin fumbling with the wedding ring as he tried to place it on the finger of his 18-year-old fourth wife, Oona O'Neill -- an endearing moment frozen in time.


In 1956 Americans were treated to photographs of a happy-yet-tentative Marilyn Monroe laughing while feeding cake to her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, on their wedding day. Also that year magazines worldwide gave the royal treatment to the grand wedding of actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco, devoting full-page spreads to candid moments, such as a pensive Princess Grace gazing over a balcony before the ceremony and the couple exchanging rings.

It was bound to happen. Invite photojournalists to a wedding and they'll do what they do best: get the story through the most candid, often humorous, touching photo record imaginable. Artful images of unfettered moments have universal appeal, and these early photographs helped spark a new genre of wedding photography. Decades later this documentary approach has evolved to what it is now: a popular option in wedding photography that captures the story behind the ceremony. Today it's available to everyone, not just celebrities, and photographers don't have to be journalists to capture the look.


Miguel Pola primarily photographs weddings and family portraits

For those wedding photographers who are photojournalists, their journalism background often informs choices they make when shooting weddings. 


Capturing ordinary moments on one of the most transforming days in people's lives is what wedding photography.  Miguel Pola's photojournalism background taught him to create images that transcend the specific to become universal, so that anyone looking at his powerful wedding pictures will be moved.

While traditional wedding photography tends to impose order and structure to the day, a photojournalistic style takes advantage of unscripted moments in order to better tell the story. 



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