Atlanta Wedding Photographer, N'neka Scruggs

Wedding Faux-tojournalism
What Wedding Photojournalism is Not!

Have you ever seen candid photos of a bridal party all jumping in the air? That is a common example of wedding faux-tojournalism, a term coined by fellow photographer. While it’s possible that the jump was spontaneous, it’s likely that the shot was requested by either the wedding party or photographer and staged. The photographer would likely have determined the best location where there are no distracting elements in the background. He or she would direct them to do it several times ensuring the entire party was frozen in the air. These are fun shots, but they’re usually not photojournalism.

Photojournalism, simply put, is telling a story with pictures. It does not matter if the image is in color or black & white or if the angle is tilted. Candid snapshots are not an example of photojournalism if it doesn’t tell a story. Pick up your favorite editorial newspaper or magazine and look at the photos and read the captions. They all say who, what, where, when and why.

While I have never been a newspaper or magazine photographer, I am a wedding photojournalist. I attended a seminar hosted by a team of award winning photojournalists turned wedding photographers. I was reminded of the basics of grammar – the structure of a sentence – and taught the basics of journalism. In news photojournalism, nothing can be staged or planned and certainly not photoshopped. Many photographers have been fired for such an offense. The only way a photographer can ethically manipulate a scene is to direct themselves. To change the background they have to shoot from a different angle. To crop they must zoom in before pressing the shutter, or walk closer. To change the lighting, they must move to take advantage of natural lighting or maybe use a flash of some sort. All these strict rules are for one purpose- to tell a true story.

The rules are not so cut and dry with wedding photojournalism because couples want us to make them look great on their wedding day. But the intent is still the same – to tell a true story of your wedding day. We want to provide you with memories of your day that exclude our presence. We will retouch your photographs to enhance them but generally not alter reality. When you flip through your wedding album with your grandkids, we want you to remember how you felt & re-live the moment, not think “that pose the photographer made us do is so cheesy.”

As you search for a photographer, you will notice that most claim to do photojournalism because that is the popular buzz word. But ask yourself what story are the pictures telling?