ALL DREAMS COME TO AN END
I remember doing research early on in my photographer career to determine what I was really interested in. I recall seeing the photographs of Jeff Ascough, a documentary wedding photographer based in the UK, and thought to myself… that would be really awesome to do.
I have been a professional photographer for the last 8 years. In that time, I’ve been a part of over 40 weddings of cultures of all kinds, many many events, multiple family sessions and of course a part of Chinatown’s history documentation.
Fast-forward to 2020 and in light of the coronavirus pandemic I had to do some serious introspection and thinking. While I absolutely love doing documentary weddings and will still take on a few, I made the tough decision to start focusing my photography elsewhere to where my base passion lies.
THE HONEST TRUTH:
The honest truth is that documentary wedding photography is a niche within a niche. Wth the competition being very fierce in the Vancouver wedding market and being a relatively unknown entity, I was not able to make it work from a business perspective. I wanted documentary wedding photography to be all I did but unfortunately reality has dashed that dream and has made do a lot of thinking over the last few months while socially distancing. I only booked a few weddings and offered a lot more than most other photographers did in my packages (prints/storybooks) as I really did (and STILL DO) care about having a tangible print product. However financial realities set in and in the midst of the scramble for toilet paper I realized that this was not a growth area for me.
I find it very unfortunate that many a bride/groom don’t even know about documentary wedding photography and thus default to the most mainstream wedding photography approaches. I recall bumping into a married couple who told me that after their wedding, they found out about documentary photography and wish they had hired someone for that approach on their wedding day. Unfortunately, a niche will be a niche but I do hope that more word gets out there that there are more options than smiling at trees and fake laughing. I will still advocate for documentary wedding photography.
If we dive deeper into styles, many a photographer call themselves candid but when you look at the photos all you see are posed photos or photos of people who are directed in a moment to do something that “looks” like it was a real moment when in fact it was manufactured. This is not to say this is a bad approach. Some brides and grooms want this. And I too have done it sometimes. But it is not documentary.
WHERE AM I GOING NOW:
For my clients who have weddings with my next year, this is NOT to say that I am cancelling all my weddings. I will continue to take on new wedding jobs on a case-by-case basis and will of course fulfill weddings currently booked. It is more of a shift in my attitude and my outlook on where and on what I want to spend my time and while I’ve poured in time and effort and money to try to make documentary weddings work, I’ve come to realize that door is slowly creaking to a close. Maybe one day it will re-open but for now… we’ll see.
So… then what am I doing now?
I’ve switched my focus to being a long-term project documentary photographer. I’ve realized that I like creating photographs that document over the long term and being involved in projects that I can build through photographs. As such, I’ll be focusing on my personal project work (such as documenting Chinatown) and perhaps add a few new offerings such as drone services. The drone world has always interested me and I can see myself growing in that aspect. I will also be looking to license images for people to use in publications. And I will still be doing family sessions as the opportunity arises as well.
A BIG THANK YOU:
To all my clients over the years who have believed in me and who still do: thank you for trusting me with your wedding days and for allowing me to document you as you really were on that day. Thank you for letting me tell your story in an honest and classical way that will hopefully live on as photo stories to pass down to future generations. And thank you in being vulnerable enough to let me to create documentary wedding photography for you.
I do feel quite sad to have made this decision but I think it was time. Things were just not going in the direction that I was hoping and I had poured a lot of time and resources in trying to make it work. You can only knock on the door for so long before you have to try another one. That being said, I am excited for the new direction that I will be going in. I realize that time is precious and also limited so it’s best to spend it doing what you love.
