Which photographs?

The definition of my job: wedding photographer has now become very generic. And I’m not talking about refining the definition with a place like a wedding photographer in Venice, rather than “wedding photographer in London” or any other city in the world. Today it is not enough to say that you are a wedding photographer to explain what photographs you make. The sector has greatly evolved, wedding photographers have made great strides in recent years and this has brought a lot of variety and choice.

For newly couples that have to choice the right photographer it’s a positive thing: now is easily to find your bespoke professional. 

What about the photographer’s point of view? Things are complicated on this side of barricade. I often have internal discussions with myself!  Deciding what to do and how to do it is very complex. I really admire those colleagues who have clear ideas, know what they want and know how to communicate it to their customers.

I’m on the contrary, I always looking for something that rarely I find. Not necessarily new, but a balance between the different types of photography that I love. I love reportage photography, so I never stop proposing wedding storytelling. I try to tell the wedding with the utmost attention and without losing concentration during the day. Every moment is important and interesting. But this also involves a huge amount of post-selection work. An album can contain a maximum of 200 photographs and in a marriage lived and told through moments and details it is not easy to be tied up.

I also love the portrait photography and what better occasion of the wedding day to take a session of portraits? Here we enter in another field, much more technical and with very different times compared to narrative photography. But how can we deny a married couple, in their most beautiful day, to celebrate their beauty? A dream dress that will never be worn again, a hairstyle and a refined make-up and valued with care are only the most visible elements that in a wedding it is right to remember. For this reason I have studied shooting and portrait techniques a lot.

Related to photography of reportage and portrait there is also the love for photography in black and white. I always propose it but I have never been able to make an album completely in black and white. Since last year, I also propose the analogue service, that is, taken and developed with traditional and non-digital photographic technology. A window on the past, a completely different experience. I hope to meet some couples who want to experience this emotion, perhaps in addition to the digital photo shoot …

At the end of this analysis it would seem all right, a little story, a bit of portrait and here is the perfect service … but no! It is not enough anymore. As I said at the beginning wedding photography is growing and so we photographers are constantly looking for improvements in our language. The points of recovery, the distance from the subject, the choice of equipment, the moment in which to shoot, the cuts, the light and so on. They are daily decisions that are taken very quickly and without being able to rethink them. These are very important decisions that will contribute substantially to the realization of the story. Finally there are the post decisions, for which you have more time and also the possibility to rethink. I talk about the phase of selection of images and editing of the same.

Very often these phases are determined by the previous ones and by the atmosphere of the wedding day. But they are not simple choices. I have always embraced the idea of ​​a post production that recalls analog photography, without the vintage effects or other artifacts even if today fashion requires them and sometimes imposes them. I have always walked the path of continuity, of being “out of time and fashions” without asking myself if someone like it or not now, but if you like it or not in the future … Fortunately I met the taste of many wonderful married couples.

The next time I go out for a wedding photo shoot I will have the same doubts as ever and I will ask myself the same question: what photographs do I do?

The answer is then the same every time; the moment I start shooting, I’ll stop thinking about it and let myself be carried away by the situation and events …

Each person expresses different emotions and I will continue to leave my mind open in order to collect them and turn them into photographs that will thrill you forever … all the “photographer questions” will be placed in the drawer of questions without answers. I will no longer worry about the distance between you and me, the lens to use or if the photo will be in color or in black and white … I will only worry about telling your story, emotion and excite me.