The Reason We Make Wedding Photographs
It’s these poignant moments in people’s lives which captivate me as a photographer when I’m at my brides’ and grooms’ weddings.
Maybe it’s because of the prevalence of everyone picture-taking that people think of photos in terms of simply snapping shots of others grinning into a camera. But I don’t.
That’s not what I’m looking for when I make a photograph.
It’s because on a wedding day the depth and breadth of what I witness happening in front of my eyes is not limited to two people grinning for a camera.
Never.
Instead, the stories I behold encompass many, many little chapters of other people’s lives brought together into one day.
Literally, into one room.
And that’s what I’m there to really photograph. Those chapters.
Here’s one of them:
The bride’s sister had travelled from abroad to attend the New York City wedding of her sibling.
She was delivering her toast.
But let’s not focus on her for the moment.
I’d like you to notice her sister, the bride.
Because as the toast was given, speaking from her heart about her love, admiration and appreciation for her sister, notice the bride… her hands coming up to her face as she takes a deep breath in.
Evidence suggesting she feels a bit overwhelmed. Flooded at that moment with rushing emotions. These words to her ears touching her deep inside her core.
Something stirs in her heart.
And hearing her sister’s sentiments toward her on this occasion – is the turning of the page which leads to the new chapter.
Sometimes an emotional moment such as this can be captured in one image.
Sometimes the story is better told when we see the playing out of it in more than one image.
This time it was told in two.
I didn’t understand what was being said. It was spoken in a foreign language.
But I don’t have to know what was being said. Just as you don’t have to know.
And the reason we need not know is because we can see the story in the bride’s expressions.
Which is why we want wedding photos: we wish to remember with our eyes how we felt with our hearts.
