Wedding Photography – a Brief History

by Marius Janse van Rensburg

Wedding Photography!  I love to be a part of it, but what a huge challenge it is to do justice to a couple’s big day.  So many different styles has been seen over the many years that wedding photography has developed, but the core has always been capturing what is important to the culture and beliefs of the couple being married.

Fashion has dictated many different points of view, starting in the early days of photography with the posed portraits.  Technology in the early 1800′s dictated that everyone should be standing very still!  In fact, only studio photography was done, with no paper prints, no albums, but only a copper sheet with your image!

But so a culture was born.  Initially only reserved for the upper class, Kings, Queens, Lords and Ladies, eventually everything filtered down to the layman, as we all aspire to be a level above!  Technology played its part, by making cameras more portable and image processing accessible and printable on paper!

The popularity of wedding photography only really increased a century after the first images were processed on copper plate.  During the Second World War, portable “roll film” was developed and this allowed photographers, together with new portable cameras and flash bulb lighting units, to pitch up at weddings uninvited, take photos and try to sell it to the bride and groom!  Although studio wedding photography at that point in time was still the standard for couples to use, these rogue (often military trained photographers) created competition to the studio photographers.

The Studio Photographers responded by going out of their studios, taking along their bulky equipment and their exquisite style, taking posed photos at the wedding.  Eventually these two initial styles merged to become the traditional style of wedding photography as we know it today.

During the late 1900′s however, digital photography reared its head and also new opportunities for the entrepreneurial photographer.  A new style of wedding photography was introduced, with images being captured as the story of the wedding unfolds.  Wedding photojournalists were (is?) less concerned with the posed images of the wedding and more concerned with telling the story of the wedding as it unfolds.  Capturing love and all the emotions surrounding the wedding has become the holy grail of the wedding photojournalist.

Initially technique was secondary to being there and looking at what is happening from a unique point of view, but as competition increased, technique has become the quality that sets wedding photojournalists apart.  Although the principles of photography have not changed with switching over from film to digital, the opportunities have increased.  The digital photographer has been enabled by post editing tools, like Photoshop, to turn their images into works of art!

The challenge for today’s wedding photographer would be to decide whether to be a purist or a pioneer.  Choose between being a traditional wedding photographer or being a photojournalist OR be a combination of both.  In my opinion, the market demands a combination. Give your couples the story of their love, while allowing them to decorate their home with stunning images, worthy of an expensive frame and begging the viewer to dream!