Documentary style Wedding Photography
Wedding photography for couples who plan on attending cocktail hour
I don’t know if you remember, but here’s how all (and I mean ALL) weddings used to be. The couple would get ready separately prior to the ceremony. After the ceremony, the couple would then skedaddle away for like 1-2 hours to do portraits while guests enjoyed cocktail hour and appetizers.
If that sounds great to you, please X out of your browser now!
If that sounds like torture and a waste of the money you’re about to pay for drinks and appetizers.
Let’s sit down for a chat.
Hey there!
I am Kari, and I am a wedding photographer who prioritizes candid and spontaneous photos of (im)perfect moments over leaving you hungry for champagne and shrimp cocktails.
I went to photo school where I focused on documentary practices and photojournalism.
That’s art speak for “I’d rather tell stories than take pictures of shampoo bottles.”
And that’s pretty much what you’ll get when you work with me. Photos of the in-between moments with relaxed portraits of you two and your families sprinkled in.
Always on film and digital!
What is Documentary Wedding Photography?
Let’s start by asking “what is documentary photography?” before we ask what it is when it comes to weddings. For me, documentary photography is a long-form series of pictures of people, places, and things that form a truthful narrative. Often published as a book or a photo-essay.
I think portraiture and still life images are definitely documentary, as long as they add to the story.
Documentary photography focuses on the story on a human level. Think of National Geographic, LIFE, or the features in NYT Magazine.
So how does that relate to weddings?
Basically, all wedding photography is documentary from my point of view. Every photographer takes pictures of people, places, and things. The difference is that when we talk about weddings, I think the photographers who highlight authentic and real-life pictures, over staged or rehearsed images are documentary wedding photographers. Truth is a big factor in documentary photography.
Why is this trending now?
A couple of decades or so ago, with the introduction of digital cameras, wedding photographers were no longer held back by the cost of shooting on film. Documentary photography relies on taking a lot of pictures — as I said, it is long-form storytelling. If someone wanted to use that approach for weddings, that would have meant hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars in film and developing.
Now, they could literally take 5000 digital photos on a wedding day. This meant that alternative styles and approaches were born, as more and more photographers had the freedom to create based on their own style and preference. That’s how the documentary approach became documentary wedding photography.