REFLECTION by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN LISBON
How mirrors can be a great source of photographs during bridal preparations
• Pode ler este artigo em Português.
Metamorphosing the light
Maybe, as a wedding photographer, I see in the reflection of an image, in a mirror, my fascination with it seems to be, but it is not. I would not like it if a photo, made by me, was some sort of a parallel universe exactly like the one it represents.
I would never have a photographic camera that gives me back photographs completely the same as the world my eyes can observe. If that happens, I am sure, I would never be a photographer, much less, at weddings. To have a replica of the world just like my eyes see, was enough to look at it.
Happily, my photographic camera has many flaws and limitations, compared to my eyes. Happily, for me, also my lens, which I have to use for my work, has the ability to metamorphose the light, present in my subjects and transform them into something else, something we like very much, called photography.
In the end, a photo, like those I recover the weddings, besides being a reality that it was, also is, at the same time, an altered reality without, however, escaping the truth that they are in charge to tell.
An altered reality, through mirrors, and photographs
That is the great challenge, of the photographer, at the wedding, that attracts me and gives me the need to come back, wedding after wedding. The mirror attracts me exactly because of that. They are, already, an altered reality. On one side, they have a limited field of view, not adapting themselves, they just are or be.
On another side, it is an inverted image, the left side will be, there, the right one. His size and place, are what give them the possibility to offer me things and my point of view, what I can see, in them. Knowing that I am preparing photography that is already a copy of the reality, that I want to pick up, is something fascinating to me.
Maybe, because of this, it has always been in mirrors where I did the photos I like the most. I do not say the best, but those that faster attract my eyes and my taste. So, it is evident why I always take advantage of them, even if, sometimes, their immobility irritates me and does nothing to help me, given the love I have for them.
