“All we’ve been able to find are Wedding Photographers!”
The first email I received from Jacob and Emma started like this:
Dear Amy,
We've been desperately searching for someone who happens to be a photographer to take photographs at our wedding -- but all we've been able to find are Wedding Photographers!
As soon as I read it, I laughed. And then I immediately emailed them back, because I knew exactly what they meant. I also knew that they were the perfect clients for me. They wanted photos to capture this most special of days, but they were dismayed by looking at websites and seeing photos that all looked similar and followed a similar pattern. Details, formal posed images, choreographed first looks, etc, etc. I am always excited when a couple contacts me and I can tell they feel a sense of excitement and relief that they may have found a person who will see them for who they are. Because when it comes down to it, that’s what documentary wedding photography, in its true form, is all about. Seeing people for who they are and documenting their day as it happens, without imposing a structure or ideas based on what wedding photography is “supposed” to be.
After their wedding, I sent Jacob and Emma a few sneak peek photos, and this shot of them dancing the hora was one of them. This was Jacob’s response to the first images they received:
“Amy, these photos are AMAZING!! I mean, really amazing. I’m so used to looking at photos and experiencing that terrible distance between the way things felt and the way - according to the photo - they must have looked. These are the opposite. If anything, they enhance and clarify the feeling. Everyone actually looks exactly like themselves. The first one is my best friend from childhood meeting Emma for the first time; so much of my life is inside it. And Emma’s face in that hora photo! Emerging from the blur of the background -- which is just the way the moment of joy feels, emerging from the moments around it.”
The other photo he mentions, of his best friend from childhood meeting Emma for the first time, is below. That was a “gut” photo. I saw the three of them talking without knowing the specific relationship, but there was a feeling of importance. It’s not a photo that, on its own, would be labeled as a “wedding” photo. The setting does look religious in nature (the Angel Orensanz Foundation is in the oldest synagogue building in NYC), but apart from that it’s basically three people talking. And yet it was one of their favorites because of the story it captures for them.
Jacob and Emma’s wedding was unique, and magical, and 100% a reflection of the two of them and the things and people they value. They embodied everything that I believe makes a wedding what it should be - a personal expression of love and celebration. As a documentary wedding photographer, this is always what I hope for, and what brings me unmitigated joy to capture.
Finally, a last word from the couple themselves, after the complete gallery was delivered:
“We've been going through the pictures these last few days and we are so, so, SO happy that we found you!! They are beautiful, filled with light and motion and feeling. Some of the portraits are uncanny. It’s as if you know the people you’re photographing; not sure how else you can stumble on such deeply characteristic expressions. These are the best event photographs either of us has ever seen.”
The honor was absolutely, completely, 100% mine.
