A Brief History of Wedding Photography

The idea of creating memories from a wedding day goes back before the camera, when the very rich paid to have a portrait painted by an artist. Wedding photography goes back almost as far as the camera itself, and the earliest examples are from 1840. In these days, photography was very different than today, each photograph took a long time to set up and develop. Many of these photo shoots were kept in the studio because all of the cameras and equipment were very large. These photographs were very classical artistic in look because the photographers actually painted the backdrops. The finished result back then was the daguerreotype, which was an impression on a copper sheet (King).

Changing Technology and the Portable Camera

Black and white photography was preferred for many years, even after the introduction of color photographic technologies. The reason for this was because the color would end up fading. After the Second World War, there was a “wedding boom,” when marriage became very popular as soldiers returned home from war. This, along with the new invention of portable roll film based cameras and compact flashes, changed the wedding photography industry forever. Many photographers would just show up to weddings, take pictures, and then try and sell prints after the event. Some of these photographers were military trained photographers, but most were amateurs who took advantage of the portability of the newly designed cameras. Even through many of these photographers created low quality images, they created competition and forced the studio photographers to start working on location. The studio photographers tried to imitate the studio settings by bringing along their heavy, bulky equipment. Even candids were posed after the ceremony because it was nearly impossible to document a whole wedding with this style (Brief).

Wedding Photojournalism

Until the 1970s, this was practically the only style of wedding photography. In the very late 60s a new style of wedding photography emerged; wedding photojournalism. Dennis Reggie defined the genre and coined the phrase wedding photojournalism in 1980, transforming the look of wedding photography throughout the world. Since 1976, Denis Reggie and his exclusive team have covered over 1,700 weddings in the documentary style he established. This style captures the wedding as it unfolds with shockingly truthful and realistic images (About Dennis).

The Digital Age

The invention of the digital camera again changed this industry in a major way. Digital cameras allow more exclusive coverage of weddings with virtually unlimited amounts of photographs. Digital also gives the photographer the option to see the images immediately to be able to check the exposure, color balance, or composition of their shots (Welton).