Why documentary wedding photography?
Documentary wedding photography is not about trends, or tradition.
It’s about capturing what’s really happening, without agenda or interference.
So what’s the difference between documentary and traditional wedding photography, and why do I shoot weddings this way? This page is all about my motivation as a wedding photographer.
Every couple is different, so every wedding is different.
I’ve been to a lot of weddings. I can remember individual details from all of them, usually relationship I got to see with my own eyes, and not necessarily the relationship between the couple (that’s kind of a given). No, I can remember the way a bride hugged her grandma. I can remember the ways older relatives commented on how weddings have changed so much, and the little smiles when they realise it’s a positive change. I can remember people huddling under umbrellas during outdoor speeches in the summer rain. I can remember the noise of friends who’ve not seen each other for years.
I don’t usually remember the decor choices, or the colour palette, or what we did for group photos.
There’s a really good reason for this. The couple and their people are the whole reason it’s happening, and that’s what I’m focussed on. I know your wedding will look beautiful because when you get a group of people together who are all so happy to be there, so supportive of the couple, so looking forward to having a good knees up, it’s always beautiful. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a Holiday Inn off the M1 or a palace. The details matter, but the people matter more.
Be with your people, in the moment.
So now you know how I feel about the people you’ve gathered around you, it should be no surprise that I want you to be with them, in the moment, as much as possible.
This means I don’t take you away from your wedding for a long run of portraits and group photos. In fact, we’ll do the group photos as close to the drinks reception as possible, and I won’t even consider starting them until you’ve had a drink and been offered some canapés.
Traditional wedding photography takes you out of your wedding for photos. Documentary wedding photography keeps you in your wedding all day.
It’s totally up to you if you want to play up to the camera with your friends - if that’s your dynamic and the way you want to spend your wedding - as long as you know that I’m not going to direct any of it. So if being in the moment with your people means taking silly pictures because it’s fun, then we’ll do that. And if it means dancefloor shenanigans, or deep chats sat on the grass, or putting on a sumo costume and wrestling your dad, then that’s what I’ll photograph.
All the people you’ve invited to your wedding matter. And they’ll all be in your gallery.
Escape trends, escape performance, escape expectation:
documentary vs traditional wedding photography
Weddings have always followed trends, and probably always will. And people have always played up to the camera, and probably always will. And weddings have tradition at the heart of them.
So what’s the real difference between traditional and documentary wedding photography?
Traditional wedding photography puts pressure on couples and guests to spend time taking posed photos, and the latest trend for editorial does this with prompts for fun moments. Documentary wedding photography does the opposite - it’s a hands off approach that captures the day exactly as it unfolds, provides no shot list, no aspiration to fashionable styles, and no expectation that you’ll conform to any wedding traditions whatsoever.
I want your wedding to be your happy place. I want you to enjoy every part of it. To be happy with all the choices you’ve made, whether they conform to expectation, trend and tradition, or break with them all.
There’s not a right way to do this, but there’s a wrong way.
As a documentary-style wedding photographer, I can’t make those choices for you, but I can support you in all your choices. I won’t direct anyone to do anything at all on the day, unless I know it’s something you’ve been clear about - like where guests sit in the ceremony, or how to put a buttonhole on.
Photography is a Time Capsule.
I got married in 2014, at the Council House in Nottingham. Our reception was in my parent’s back garden. We had about 85 people there in total.
In those photos I see our son, now 13, as a toddler, with his favourite toy. I see my husband’s grandad, who passed away a few years ago. A close family friend of ours, who was like my surrogate grandad, who died soon after our wedding. I had no living grandparents by this time, and it’s so lovely to see these old blokes, pillars of our earlier lives, represented with us in our photos.
I see part of the country that was foundational to me, but that I moved away from once I had my own family.
I see older relatives, happy and healthy, and younger relatives as children.
And isn’t that the point? The photos capture a moment in time that we can revisit whenever we like.
When the photos are posed, the moments are confected. When the photographer stops being a director, and just looks for the connection between people, the moments are genuine. You might even be able to look at a photo and remember what was felt in the moment. Could you do that with something you were being directed to perform?
Documentary, Reportage, Candid - it’s agile. It can capture everything.
I’ve explained that a documentary approach can capture the connection between people without direction, or performance. But there’s so much more.
It’s portable.
With this mindset, I’m not looking for aesthetics to make your photos beautiful, or feeling constrained by a shot-list.
It doesn’t matter if I’ve never been to your venue in my life, or if it’s my local pub that I’ve visited for a thousand sunday roasts. It doesn’t matter if it’s tipping down, or if the sun is beating down on us. I’m not worried about the light.
There’s always a story to tell, and I’m going to use my camera to do that.
So Why Am I A Documentary Wedding Photographer?
I want the photos I take on a wedding take to tell stories.
Weddings are packed with thousands of individual moments happening completely organically.
When the photographer stops being a director, and instead becomes a witness, the real moments are what’s being captured. They can be tiny, or they can be huge. You can see exactly what I mean in my portfolio.
The couple are not the only people at their wedding. Everyone matters, and everyone can be photographed.
A candid approach to the photography means you get to enjoy your wedding, without feeling like the photographer’s ‘taking over’.
Your wedding gallery won’t look like a cookie cutter, wedding factory kind of album. It’ll be unique.
That's why I work as a documentary wedding photographer, covering weddings across the UK and Europe.
