Fine Art Wedding Photography
by: Otto Schulze



I was first introduced to the concept of ‘fine art wedding photography’ in 2005 when I came across an article Rangefinder Magazine did with Joe Buissink titled “ Zen and the Art of the Wedding Photojournalist”. This concept really was revolutionary to me at the time as a fine art/documentary photographer. Especially as what I considered to be fine art and what I had known at that point to be wedding photography seemed to be at complete odds with one another. And in truth, at the time they were. Typical wedding photography was contrived, stiff, and certainly by no means fine art. At least not to me. And wedding photography was certainly not the route I was looking at going. Not at all.

However, as I continued reading and thought about it I realized that if art is merely individual expression (and that in its varied forms) of how we see, experience, and express the life and world around us then certainly wedding photography had the potential to be ‘fine art’. Not that ‘qualifying’ for the term ‘fine art’ in itself means anything. It means nothing! But what I mean is that an artist could walk into that space of a wedding day and proceed to see, feel, experience, and then express their view of that wedding day through the lens. Instead of showing up at the wedding with a list of pre conceived poses and ideas, and simply drop the couple into that ‘mold’, rather as an artist REACT to their unique wedding day as it unfolds like any other wedding day. Employing your skill set as an artist in seeing light, using light, perceiving moments and producing a complete artwork of the entire day. I think the approach for me of a fine art photographer is beautifully summarized by Authors Francois Rene Auguste Chateaubriand and Baba Ram:

“A master in the art of living,” said Chateaubriand, “draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play. He simply pursues his vision of excellence, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” But, explained Baba Ram Dass, “It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and proceed.”

And so I think fine art photography (it really doesn’t matter what photography it is) is much more a life philosophy than merely just photography. There is an appreciation, fascination, respect for life and the subjects we approach and photograph. And so we approach…we try our best to leave all our pre conceived ideas( not easy) behind and move into the wedding day, camera in hand, our minds not made up, looking for that unique signature that is every wedding. It is a much more REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE approach.

So fine art wedding photography is not merely sepia toning your images, or obscure camera angles, or excessive grain, or shooting film….or whatever else. And don’t get me wrong, all of these can be a part of it. But fine art wedding photography then for me rather is the approach. Not only of your subject on the day but also of your images after the day in post production. To me, the actually wedding day is the sketch on the canvas and what happens in post production (everything from my treatment of the files, the film I choose, the paper I print on etc) to me is the actual painting. So it’s the fusion of all these elements. Carefully and thoughtfully chosen and woven together to produce a true ‘1 of 1’…

I highly recommend the Rangefinder article with Joe Buissink for further reading. The article in its entirety can be found HERE (http://www2.rangefindermag.com/magazine/July05/showpage.taf?page=buissink.tml)

DISCLAIMER : The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of photographik or any member of the photographik organization.