EVENT by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE ALENTEJO
The photos were taken in Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the Alentejo, where the bride was getting ready for her wedding.
Pode ler este artigo em Português.
Photographs I Liked Very Much
What a bride does on her wedding day is an event in itself. A wedding photographer would need nothing else to leave happy and full of photographs if he were only responsible for telling that part of the day.
It reminds me of when, many years ago, I used to make some fashion catalogues for a few companies and would amuse myself by photographing, just for myself, the make-up and hair-styling stage of the models chosen for the session. It was fabulous because it gave me photographs I liked very much.
They were not, many times, the photographs I had been asked for. They were the ones that happened while what had been asked for was being done.
Perhaps that is why I still remember that time whenever I enter a room where a bride is getting ready. Something about that moment feels familiar to me. People are busy, there are things to do, there is a certain urgency in the air, but at the same time, there are small pauses and situations that nobody seems to be there to photograph.
I am. And that is enough for me.
Photographs, from the wedding, eager to become photographs
When I became a wedding photographer, I found this chapter of the wedding day that filled me with enthusiasm and immediately made me feel that I belonged there. It was immediately established in my mind that I should return to it whenever possible.
On the one hand, because I have complete freedom there to look for the best place for the composition that seems right to me for a particular moment in the bride’s preparations, and on the other, I do not have to do anything for a whole quantity and, fundamentally, quality of photographs eager to become one to be handed to me.
It is something that continues to happen.
The bride is having her make-up done, her hair is taking shape, someone enters, someone leaves, someone asks if everything is all right. A hand adjusts something, a glance goes towards the mirror, a conversation starts on one side and ends on another. And, in the middle of all this, the photographs appear.
– I do not have to ask that person to do something particular.
– I do not have to interrupt a conversation to obtain a gesture.
– I do not have to explain to anyone where they should stand.
I only have to look.
Of course, the wedding photographer searches. He looks for the light, the framing, the position from which he can best see what is happening. But it is a search made within a reality that is already happening. And that gives me the freedom I like so much.
I can be in one place and suddenly realise it is better to move to some other point of view. I can be photographing the bride and notice someone standing behind her. I can wait two seconds or immediately change position. The photograph may be where I thought it was, or appear somewhere completely different.
It is this unpredictability that holds me.
A bride is never alone
But it does not end there. A bride is not simply standing there alone, the holder of a magic that only brides are capable of using, and suddenly, there she is, call the driver, I want to go and meet my everything, next to the person who is going to marry us.
If that were the case, there would be no fun in it, and the wedding photographer would not have that desire that took hold of him the first time. Around her there is a whirlpool.
There are people working, giving opinions, looking in, supervising, trying to help, and people who are simply there because it is impossible not to be. Everyone has something to do or, at least, thinks they do.
And there is always someone asking:
— Is everything all right?
Then someone else comes and asks something else.
Someone looks at the hair. Someone looks at the make-up. Someone looks at the bride. And sometimes it seems as if all those people are supervising the construction of something that can only exist on that day.
The bride.
Sometimes it even seems like a piece of experimental theatre in which we are left with the impression that there was no rehearsal, while at the same time we realise that everyone is, after all, playing their part perfectly.
It is an unrehearsed choreography, and that is precisely what interests me. There is no need to organise that little world for it to work photographically. It already works.
The wedding photographer only needs to be inside it.
Irresistible for the wedding photographer
Around her, around the bride, there is a whirlpool of other people moving, looking in, giving opinions and supervising, creating greater pressure for the person responsible, as if on a canvas, creating the most beautiful bride who has ever been created.
And while all of that is happening, I photograph.
There are moments when I almost disappear from there.
Not in the sense of no longer being present, but because I stop thinking about anything other than what is in front of me. The camera becomes a kind of continuation of my eyes, and things happen quickly.
An expression. A gesture. Someone passing. A hand appearing. A moment when everyone seems to be concentrating on the same thing. Then, suddenly, something else is happening.
It is irresistible.
I would even say that any photographer who, as soon as he picks up a camera, becomes taken over by a kind of obsession that he simply cannot resist. Anyone who has that habit knows what I mean.
It is that desire to make one more photograph because, precisely at that moment, something appeared that was not there before.
And then another.
Not because there is an obligation to photograph everything, but because there is a genuine desire not to let it pass.
What holds me in this part of the day
- The bride’s preparations offer enormous freedom to look for photographs.
- The people around her create a succession of situations that do not need to be staged.
- Small gestures and events become photographs without anyone having prepared them.
- The photographer can simply observe and choose, among everything that happens, what interests him enough to keep.
Time passes without being noticed
Perhaps that is also why, many times, I only realise the preparations have ended when the bride is already ready.
During that time, there always seems to be something to photograph.
There is still a small detail missing. Something still needs to be checked. Someone calls someone. The bride looks at the mirror. There is one last pass of the hands through her hair.
And I remain there, but before I know it, they are saying it is time to leave.
It is a curious feeling because, photographically, it always seems as though I have only just started. But the day does not wait for the photographer, and the bride has to leave.
That is when that little kind of theatre begins to disappear.
The people who were around her begin to move away. Each one returns to their place in what comes next. The bride leaves that space and finally goes to meet the groom and the wedding ceremony.
And I follow.
A bride and a groom given over to those preparations
Of course, many other things can be said, written, about this part of the wedding day when a bride and a groom are given over to these preparations.
But for the wedding photographer, what matters most is knowing that it remains irresistible to quickly pick up one of his cameras, attach the lens he thinks is right for that moment, and only realise that they are leaving that place when they are already going somewhere else.
Well, it is more or less like that. There is something very simple about it.
The bride’s preparations do not need to be turned into something extraordinary in order to produce photographs that interest me. They are already extraordinary in what is particular about them: busy people, small nerves, concentration, movement, waiting, and that expectation that, in a short while, the bride will leave.
And there is also a kind of transition.
Only a short while ago she was having her make-up done. Then her hair was being styled. Then someone was helping with something. And suddenly, she is ready.
The photographer has followed that transformation without needing to provoke it. He was only watching and photographing.
That is why I like this part of the day so much. Not only because of the quantity of photographs that can come from it, but because I feel they are born in a way that is very close to what I like doing.
Observe first. Photograph afterwards. There is no need to complicate it.
Point by point:
- For the wedding photographer, it would be enough to be responsible for photographing a bride’s wedding preparations to satisfy his love of photography.
- There he has complete freedom to find all the ways in which photographs offer themselves, and they are handed to him without him having to do anything for that to happen.
- Around the bride, an unrehearsed choreography unfolds, each person knowing exactly what they need to do.
- The preparations allow him to follow a transformation without needing to direct it.
- So involved does he often become that he only realises the bride is ready when he sees her leaving for the next place in the wedding day.
And then it is time to go
There comes a moment when there are no more photographs to make there. Or, at least, that is what the clock decides. The bride is ready and the day continues.
The wedding photographer does not leave, of course. There is still the meeting with the groom, the wedding ceremony and everything that comes afterwards. But that little story has ended.
The photographs remain.
So does that feeling that, if he had stayed another ten minutes, he would probably have found more. That is what happens when you love photographing.
Perhaps that is the real reason why I like this part of the wedding so much. It is not only because the bride is beautiful, nor because all that preparation exists, something we all recognise.
It is because there is life.
And wherever there is life, there is always something that makes me want to photograph.
Conclusion:
The bride’s preparations continue to be one of those moments of the wedding day where almost everything I look for is already happening. I do not need to ask, organise or invent. I need to pay attention.
It is a succession of small events that come together, disappear and give way to others. And perhaps that is exactly why I like the photographs that come from there so much.
Because I did not make them happen. I was there when they happened.
You need to know:
Of course, the wedding photographer does not leave as soon as the bride leaves for the wedding ceremony. He immediately finds other reasons for this new stage. But some photographs remain especially connected to that moment when everything was still happening around the bride, before she left.
I am at your disposal
If you are also looking for someone who pays attention to those moments that never repeat themselves, we can talk about your wedding day and the way you would like it to be photographed.
- The photographs included in this article were taken while the bride was preparing for her wedding at the Santo António Parish Church in Reguengos de Monsaraz in the Alentejo, Portugal.