Weddings Inc.
A short essay on John’s thought’s on Digital photography, wedding photojournalism & books.
Craftsmanship is not a word you hear too often these days when talking about photography. For all the huge benefits digital photography has brought us, it has also levelled the playing field; virtually anyone can now pick up a camera and produce good (or bad) pictures. I do sometimes wonder if most people who take pictures on digital cameras actually even know about apertures and shutter speeds, the most basic of photography knowledge. Could most people work out how to change an exposure from f2.8 at 1/1000 sec to the equivalent exposure at f22 or even f64? (I think 1/15 at f22 and, err, oh is f45 a half stop or is it one stop from f32 to f64? because it is half, although f8 to f11 isn’t half and it’s a stop…stop it. It’s doing my head in)
Maybe no one needs to know about apertures these days. You just look at the back of the camera until it looks right, yeah? Who even cares about apertures? I heard a good line the other day, a photographer asked his assistant to go and get the f-stops from the car, which fruitless task he duly attempted!
Gone are the huge amounts of time spent processing films, years spent in the darkroom honing your printing skills and knowing how a picture is going to turn out when committed to silver halide. Poor old Ansel Adams must be turning in his (no doubt immaculately presented with a full moon rising above it) grave. Is there an equivalent zone system for digital?
To a large extent, gone are those long hours spent desperately, frantically trying to get images back to your picture desk – ok, they still exist, just not as bad as they used to be. Unless you’re in Haiti. Or a hotel on Park Lane at an awards ceremony (have Orange sorted that one out yet?). Still, those past lessons have not been wasted, those hard acquired skills. I believe they still help the photographer in this digital age…they give us something to talk about when we are standing around waiting for a picture!
It is interesting how the term ‘photojournalism’ is being used in the wedding photography business these days. Just when you thought photojournalism was ‘dead,’ up it springs again.
When talking about PJ, it doesn’t generally conjure up happy memories. Most of the time it is used to show, war, famine, natural disasters, etc, think of James Nachtwey’s ‘Inferno’ a coffee table book so beautiful but yet so harrowing, (which by the way, should never sit on a coffee table.) In the past though PJ, wasn’t always about doom and gloom; think of W. Eugene Smith’s Country Doctor which, whilst still not the cheeriest of subject matter, is a stunning portrayal of everyday life. Elliot Erwitt’s work also springs to mind; some of the most beautifully observed and humorous images you will see. More recently there is the everyday work of Martin Parr.
Should we use the term ‘Photojournalism’ when talking about weddings? I’m not sure. I certainly have reservations about the word in that context. I feel, documentary, natural or reportage are better descriptions. PJ, to me describes somewhat loftier ideals. There are many wedding photographers these days calling themselves photojournalists; I’m not sure how many of them have ever managed to shoot a photo essay in Grozny or Mogadishu (widely regarded as the toughest assignments on the planet). I certainly haven’t.
I was a staffer at a national news agency for 4 years (not one of the really big ones) and then was freelance at the Daily Telegraph for 7 years. Yet I am loathe to call myself a photojournalist, although I could maybe get away with it. I’ve had about 30 front pages of national newspapers, shot assignments in many different countries. Hey, I even photographed a war zone in Bosnia a while back. I had a colleague who started in Fleet Street at exactly the same time as me. We both wanted to be photojournalists but John D’s desire was a lot stronger than mine; he succeeded, now producing stunning photographs, film and audio slideshows from the frontline in Afghanistan for the Guardian. He very nearly died on the battlefield for his efforts, shot in an ambush. Thankfully he recovered, and went straight back to Afghanistan. I’m not sure I could have done that.
In this day and age, the media doesn’t understand, doesn’t want, or even need to understand the concept of telling stories in photographs in traditional mass media print. Gone are the times when magazines would publish 20 or 30 page stories by photographers (well, maybe a very few select photographers can still get that treatment, but not many). If you’re lucky, you’ll get a web gallery showcasing a few of your pictures. Times have changed. And I’m not opposed to this. Video and multi media content for the Internet is the way forward in that respect.
Talking of video and changing context here from one very serious issue to another, equally serious issue: would a bride ever choose to just video her wedding? And then have some right, dodgy old stills taken off that video? Even if it was supposed to be, err…high def? I don’t think so. An amazing photograph is much, much more than that and it’s great that more people are seeing it that way. It’s only a shame that the accountants running our newspapers and magazines these days can’t see that!
So the point I am getting to, after all this rambling nonsense, is this; it’s up to us, the photographers, to tell our stories how we really want to. And technology is on our side. As technology has diluted our talent pool, it has also offered us new opportunities to tell our stories.
I’m not talking about the internet here; I’m talking about books. Ask any photographer where they would most like to see their photographs, and I bet most would say in a high quality book (with the exception of a major exhibition). I bet not too many would say in a web gallery. The self-published book is a fairly new phenomenon and whilst the book is certainly not the best method of mass communication, I think it is the best way to present the detailed stories photojournalists shoot. I couldn’t have dreamed of having my own beautifully designed and printed book a few years ago. This was in the realms of publishing houses, print runs in the thousands of copies and thousands of £’s
A well designed, beautifully printed book is such a tangible thing and one which I think will never go out of fashion. These days it’s available for all of us to produce at a fraction of the price it used to. (I’m a bit of a photography book nut; I have about 80, plenty of room for more).
Maybe one day the book will go the way of the LP and VHS, indeed Google is doing its best to digitise every book that has ever been written, including The Da Vinci Code for some reason; there are electronic books, Kindle, ipad, etc, electronic paper (the newspaper is almost certainly doomed in its current form) and there are also environmental concerns with producing books.
But at the end of the day I think the book has a long life ahead of it. I still believe high quality photographic books will live on for a while yet, certainly for my life time.
The paperback novel may well go the way of the dodo, but Brides and Grooms…count yourself lucky…you will still be able to hold a beautifully produced work of wedding photojournalism in your hands for many years to come…ok, ok…I’ve accepted that old photojournalism and wedding thing!
John Taylor
References:
Let Truth be the Prejudice, W.Eugene Smith: His Life and Photographs
Inferno by James Nachtwey
Personal Exposures by Elliot Erwitt
John D McHugh
www.johndmchugh.com
www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/john-d-mchugh-afghanistan
John D is also available to shoot wedding documentaries.
My humble work can be seen at:
www.johntaylorphotos.com
My tear sheeets can be seen here
