ILLUSION by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
One of the things that give me great satisfaction to see in weddings, outside of the wedding photographer, is the genuine joy that I find on the faces of those who are there taking their place in certain specific moments, that seem to have been made on purpose to delight lenses connected to cameras with a taste for what they were made for.
I’ve written it here a few times before, that the wedding photographer believes, with conviction, that weddings were invented for him, with those moments purposely designed and fine-tuned to have the right pictures that he gets a kick out of catching. If that hadn’t been the case, what would a groom and bride need one for on their special day? For nothing, because there would be no wedding photographs there. There might be others, but not wedding ones. Well, it’s an argument of his that I don’t dare contest because then he’s even more dedicated to doing his job. A little illusion doesn’t hurt anyone as long as it serves a good purpose.
But if you think about it, maybe he, the wedding photographer, has a point. Even without a camera in hand, someone who has some patience for the observation during the exit of everyone from the ceremony site and with bride and groom already married, so they’re not bride and groom anymore, and see all that genuine joy on the faces of everyone who wants to kiss them, hug them, congratulate them, wish them all the good things the universe has for them and feel, because you can see, that they are sincere, that it’s a joy of those that want to give, I understand that the wedding photographer sees very important things there and that he can’t leave any lost without being already photographed, and, as I know that he does it, also, with great truth, I understand perfectly what he says.
That is why I cannot even think of trying to tell him no, that a wedding is just an event where two people decide, through a proper ritual that has existed for many centuries, that is why it is very much in tune, to show to all those who love them that from then on they will be together in a stronger way for whatever happens. Since it’s an event that was decided and done in total choice and freedom, love is the foundation of it and that’s why the people who are there, whom they call wedding guests, get emotional, want to celebrate with all the things that will be there for that. Even the cake, which is distributed in pieces to everyone at the end of the day, is a thank you from the bride and groom so that their guests also take their happiness with them.
It was not a staging for the wedding photographer. He, only, takes advantage of it because he knows that, there too, photographs happen. Well, he knows, but he prefers it his way. It’s more fun, he says.
