Cover Image: The Bride, Grażyna Smalej (2009)I was involved in two weddings over the weekend. The first was my brother's. There was a lovely service in a small chapel outside of Toowoomba, followed by a reception in a superb venue that overlooked the rolling green peaks of the range.The second wedding was also held in a small chapel near Toowoomba, had a very similar reception venue and also heavily featured my brother and his fiancé. In fact, this second wedding ran in perfect parallel to the first. This was the wedding we staged for the photo album.At the real wedding, the bride and groom kissed on the altar just after they were pronounced husband and wife. In the parallel wedding, the bride and groom kissed in field full of wild flowers. In preparation for the real wedding, the groom and his groomsmen showered and dressed in their separate rooms. In preparation for the parallel wedding, the groom and groomsmen got dressed in the living room together, helping each other put on, tie up and button on every single article and accessory.Do you see what I'm getting at? The memories we capture on our wedding days often never actually occur. We don't hire photographers for their ability to document the day - we hire them for their ability to orchestrate scenes and deliver a set of now-expected wedding photography tropes.You know the pictures I'm talking about. The one where the bridal party all jump in the air. The one where the groomsmen put on dark shades and recreate the Reservoir Dogs cover. The one where the groom lifts the bride above his head in front of the setting sun. The one where the bride and groom walk down the country path, arm in arm. The one where the bridesmaids hide their faces behind their bouquets.Why do I think this is a problem? Firstly, my understanding of a wedding is that it's an event that celebrates couple's commitment to each other by bringing together all their closest friends and family for a huge party. If that's the point, why do so many brides, grooms and bridal parties disappear straight after the ceremony (to pose in fields, under large trees, in sandstone universities, on jetties, in graffitied alleyways, etc., etc.), only to return after the reception starts. I can't think of any other party where the guests of honour disappear completely for hours on end.Secondly, surely the primary job of the wedding photographer is to document the wedding? I've been married and I know that while you want to soak up as much of the day as you can, there's often so much going on that the day actually becomes a bit of a blur. Which is why it's great to have an album of wedding photos - each snap brings a blurred memory back into focus. The photographer at my wedding snapped a candid moment where my brightly smiling Nana hugged my sister straight after the ceremony. It's quite a moving image and one that I'll always treasure. It's special to me because it's genuine.Staged photos don't have the same affect. These clichéd snaps are more likely to remind you of your photographer or the hours spent researching wedding photo ideas on Pinterest, not the genuine interactions that occurred during your special day. They look great, but for me there's a huge difference between a memory of the time I helped my brother straighten his tie while we stood on the altar waiting for his bride and a memory of the time a wedding photographer asked me to pretend to straighten my brother's tie while we waited on the altar for his bride.Of course, I totally appreciate that I might be looking at the whole wedding photography thing the wrong way. My partner was telling me about photo she saw in a friend's wedding album of a pristine white wedding dress hung from a branch in a dead tree. In this case, the wedding photography is obviously some form of abstract expression. It's about capturing an emotion as opposed to documenting an event. I guess a lot of the staged photos could serve this purpose.I'm also happy to entertain the idea that I might just be grouch.Cover Image: The Bride, Grażyna Smalej (2009)
