What Documentary Wedding Photography & Street Photography have in common

I’ll start this blog by stealing a recent quote from John Dolan. He said a useful mantra as a documentary wedding photographer is “The photographs are about the wedding. The wedding is not about the photographs.” This is absolutely 100% true, and highlighted for me why my street work so closely matches my wedding work in tone and intention. And I think it’s a useful way to clarify for someone who might not really understand what John meant by that statement.

So let’s substitute the word “street” for “wedding”. “The photographs are about the street. The street is not about the photographs.” It sounds almost silly because it’s so obvious. The people in the photo above didn’t swipe their metrocards and stand there, looking at their phones and waiting on the train SO THAT I COULD PHOTOGRAPH THEM. I photographed them to show a moment in time in the NYC subway system, as it happened. They didn’t even know they were the subject of a photo.

Obviously at a wedding, the couple knows they’ve hired a photographer and that photos are being taken. But, if they’ve hired a documentary wedding photographer as opposed to a traditional wedding photographer who will work from a shot list and spend up to several hours arranging, posing and orchestrating a large number of shots, they know that the wedding is not performative, done for the sake of the camera. Rather, the camera is there, unobtrusively capturing moments as they happen.

Imagine if, in the first photo, I had suddenly announced my presence, and started asking the three people pictured to move around, face me, put their phones down and SMILE! Would it be a good photo? It’s possible, if that was the vibe I was going for, but it definitely would not be an accurate representation of a natural moment on the subway platform.

There is nothing wrong with traditional wedding photography. I know some amazing photographers who spend hours on detail shots and posed shots of the couple and their families. If that’s what you like, absolutely go for it. I can even recommend a few great photographers. But if you hate posing and would rather not spend part of your day on a shot list or wandering around taking posed photos, missing the cocktail hour entirely, then a non-traditional, documentary approach is probably something you’d love.

When I’m shooting on the streets of NYC, I never know what will happen. I can’t anticipate the action, because that would require a level of omniscience I simply do not have, and wouldn’t want. I approach weddings in exactly the same way. There is a general guideline, sure, but no two weddings are alike, and trying to anticipate what will happen is a sure way to capture no interesting photos.

“The photographs are about the street/wedding. The street/wedding is not about the photographs.” In my opinion the worst thing that could happen would be for a couple to spend their wedding day worried about the photographer completing a shot list, or laboring under the pressure of an hour or more of posed images while their guests enjoy the food and drinks.

Hire a photographer to be there, and then enjoy the day. The photographs will be about your wedding. And not the other way around.