‘Imperfect’ Holga Wedding Photography
- The Perfect Imperfect–
I’ll admit it! I have a real beef with the wedding photography industry.
I might be generalising, but the industry is obsessed with the notion of ‘perfection’. Whether it’s a photographer’s website copy, wedding pictures taken, camera specs, lens sharpness or Instagram grid, it’s perfect this and perfect that, ‘I’ll capture all the perfect moments, perfectly!’.
In my view (and it’s just my opinion so don’t get excited!), ‘perfection’ is a slippery and subjective concept that is arguably unattainable. Not only that, the trend to ‘perfection’ creates work that is both boring and utterly homogenised and heaps shed loads of pressure on everyone involved, including the poor couple who ultimately just want to snog and party!
The ‘imperfect’ wedding
John Dolan is an American wedding photographer I quite admire. He espouses the idea of the ‘imperfect’. He writes,
“Pop culture would have us believe that a wedding must be perfect down to every last detail to be successful. I see things differently. In my experience, it is precisely the unpredictability of a wedding that often makes it memorable. Photographers have a great opportunity to look beyond the shot list and find beauty and truth in these imperfect moments.”
In short, John is arguing (and he’s not the only one) that it’s the inbetween moments or the ‘slices of life’ at a wedding that really matter - the truth. Many of John’s pictures are of transitional moments, for example the family members dispersing from a group shot. His pictures have a sense of ‘shooting from the hip’, spontaneous moments that are often technically ‘floored’ - blurred for example.
For John, the ‘feeling’ of the wedding is what matters rather than a perfect facsimile of the moment that is almost hyperreal.
The Imperfect Holga
Of late I’ve taken to shooting a little bit of film at weddings, often with my Holga which is an old ‘toy’ film camera that gets everything wrong by modern camera standards but, paradoxically, everything right when it comes to photos with that indefinable bit of ‘feeling’ to them. You can see some of the photos throughout this blog.
Whilst the idea of the ‘imperfect’ is much more that shooting with a ‘rubbish’ camera, by merging the limitations of the camera, film itself, the photographer’s instinct and the moment, then something truly special and unique could be created.
Of course, other photographers and may be couples might scoff at all this. Ultimately, what’s perfect or not is highly subjective and I’m a firm believer in ‘each to his/her own’ but I hope just a few of you appreciate the sentiment of this imperfectly written post. Sometimes, when something’s wrong, it’s right.
