As promised a continuation of my previous Blog article in respect to the changes that have taken place in weddings fashion and also in the way in which weddings have been photographed.
In 1958 when Mr & Mr Brown got married the expectations was that there photographer would turm up a few minutes before the wedding to get pictures of the bride and her bridesmaids along with her father about to enter the church, the photographer would then wait patiently outside the church for the couple to come out as man and wife and then would shoot about 10 group shots pack up and go on to the next wedding or go home, the album would contain some 20 images of the day and would have been possibly all black and white images, although colour was also being widely used by this time.
Into the the sixties and and the bride started to show the odd bit of ankle but on the whole most brides continue the tradition of covering up with vials and even long sleeves and gloves. Then along came the seventies and the brides dress lost the long sleeves but what was left "puffed out" sleeves,the groom had unbelievably large collar to his shirt and wide flared trousers. Wedding photography didn't change to much other than a few shots at the reception and the odd fake cake cutting.
At some point between the seventies and the the late 80's other shots in church where added to the wedding photographers list including the signing of the register and often a good couple of hours of photography at the reception venue of every conceivable variation of the formal group shot. Then in the 90's like the fashion with the wedding dress something happened, brides started to be less modest exposing more of their bodies sleeves went from dresses and wedding photography in most photographers eyes eventually came of age ....... what had been happening right from the early sixties in fashion photography eventually got a foot hold into more popular culture, no more did couples want hours of formal shots they wanted to be liberated to enjoy their day, contemporary wedding photography was born ..... which is a term still used today , which is also amusing when you think the style of photography is now some 15 years old ..!!!! This "new" style encompasses fashion and photojournalism and the odd other interlopers, so that the shots of the bride now look like they are out of Vogue and the build up of the day including bridal preparation shots look like part of some magazine editorial and can be all black and white like they were back in the 50's. Celebrity wedding photographers are as well known as the couples they photograph and the images just keep getting more stunning but are often very much removed from the actually wedding day. What is more the couples are now often not only being photographed together before their wedding day with the pre-wedding shots but they are also being photographed after it, allowing for great fun with things like trash the dress shoots.
The question has to be where next???? as "contemporary" wedding photography is now an unruly teenager that often wants a lot of money for staying out late without actually doing that much for it, will it mature or will something else take it's place ? I am not an expert in the area of fashion but I have been involved in photography longer enough to make some informed guesses where things may go next.
The other major development to take into account with in the last 10 years is the event of digital imaging, not only to produce images but also transform then without the need for a darkroom. The number of entry end wedding photographers has increased dramatically with the affordability of digital equipment, image creation in some ways has also progressed more than ever before, whilst paradoxically at the same time being drastically watered down with a flood of poor quality digital images as you will see all over the Internet , and this is unlikely to diminish in the same way MP3 has replaced the CD which in turn replaced vinyl, each time reducing the quality of media for the sake of convenience. I know I am far from being on my own with the view that there will be a significant number of people partly driven by a feeling of nostalgia, an appreciation of quality or simply wanting something " retro " that will want not only analogue film photography but also the original hand produced print that are associated with this process . It is already happening in other areas of our lives, look at the large number of new "retro" looking cars on the roads.
In wedding fashion dresses on today's cat walks are looking very similar to what Mrs Brown's wore on he wedding day some 52 years ago, the colours and style is coming back, and so is film photography ...digital imagery is far to "clinical" , it is not just the quality of the image but how the image "feels". Call me old fashioned but ... I believe within the next five years couples will want something that is unique that will say quality, that is most certainly not mass produced.
Photographers that run around snapping at anything and everything at a wedding will not have the same number of clients prepared to suffer proofing thousands of images for the hope of one gem,such as the front of Uncle Fred's head rather than 20 images of the back of it ...! as unfortunately there are far too many so called wedding photographers who take totally random and uninteresting images and trying to call what they do photojournalism.
Couples are already wanting more formal shots, they just want them to look less formal than the ones in their parents albums. Something new will be replaced with something old and as a skilled wedding photographer I am going to be able to offer that type of product to my clients. If you have a wedding coming up be ahead of the game and ask me what I can do for you.
Labels: marc byram wedding photography what are the different styles what to look for in "wedding photography" dress fashion 50's 60's 70's 80's 90's contemporary developments whats next ?
