Wedding Photography and the use of that word “photojournalism”
by: David Pullum



The wedding photography market is a tough place to do business. Here in the UK, as I guess in other countries as well, the amount of new wedding photographers is on the rise. It’s fairly easy to set up a business, and no recognized qualifications are needed. I am certainly not a “newbie” basher, there is some outstanding talent out there waiting to develop and in a lot of cases these photographers are producing some great work.

However, like any industry, there are buzz words that are trendy and the buzz word for the last few years has been “photojournalist”. I personally debated whether I should use this word on my site for a long time and eventually decided that I should because I truly believe that it’s the word that best describes how I approach a wedding. I don’t touch or move anything to create an image. I remember listening to Brooks Whittington talk about the art of the photojournalistic approach he takes to each of his weddings, and being inspired by this. His images are full of emotion and real events; nothing is contrived and there are no clichéd shots. For me, it makes the story telling elements of the images compelling viewing.

Unfortunately though, I now see photographers’ work that have this word emblazoned across their websites and snapshots of people laughing that have no storytelling element at all.

For me, providing storytelling images to my customers is paramount; I don’t want to create the moment because then it’s not a true reflection of what happened on their day. And their day is just another day, albeit a very special one, and there are all ranges of emotions that take place on that day.

A good PJ wedding photographer needs to have more than just camera skills, they need to be able to interact with guests instantly. This is an important factor for me as it’s important that I am able to blend in with the guests, to not obviously be “the photographer”. At the same time, the photographer is always looking around assessing next moves by key players and anticipating reactions and judging the lighting, backgrounds and distance to subject, so being nimble on your feet is a major advantage.

Lastly, and this may be a rather contentious idea, but being close always helps. Standing in a corner or being too far from the action produces images that are distant and sometimes emotionless; it shows a lack of connection with the couple and a weakness in people skills.

So what can be done to improve photographers’ perceptions of what real PJ photography is? I think educating up and coming photographers is key to improving not only their own but the general public’s perception of wedding photography as well. Organizations such as photographik and others can help the public’s perception of our craft. Seeing great talent displayed on a single site, at competitive pricing, that reflects the true talent the photographer possesses can really help to drive home the idea that Wedding Photography is an art and, if done properly, can result in treasured memories for a lifetime.

And I sincerely hope that the digital revolution does not damage our craft; that cheaper and cheaper cameras and memory cards and websites will not mean that people view wedding photography as “easy money”.

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.