Why we love minimal posing in wedding photography

How Instagram stole my craft.

Instagram stole my craft.

WHAT?

It made me worry about the wrong things in my work. It made me doubt my clients and their choices. It made me look differently whilst working, trying to find something else rather than just seeing. Somewhere along the way it made me look for ‘the perfect’ rather than embrace the messy. It made me swap out what was in front of me for what needed to be in front of me. It stopped me looking for what was important , The kind of wedding photography I had done for years—confidently, intuitively.

It made me disappointed in my own photographs. And not because of my photography.

There came a point where it was ‘if it is not that brand’ or ‘that venue’ or ‘those flowers’. If they were not ‘that kind of couple’ or ‘that magazine beautiful’ it was not good enough to show.

There was a scrabble for getting it right, but for the wrong reasons. To create for the feed.

Somehow it became shallow and hollow.

It has filled my mind with so many ‘other images’ and ‘should be’s’ , that sometimes I forget my own.

I have been looking back through my Ibiza weddings. 9,10,11,12 …. 20 years.

Back then, the pressure I felt was from this place.

For the couple.
For myself.
To create good art.
(I’ve always pushed myself to a high standard.)

There were no thoughts of algorithms, likes, or Insta-worthy aesthetics.
No wondering whether the dress, flowers, or lighting were on trend.

The questions were:

Is this a great photograph?

Does it tell their story?

Did I capture the moment, the emotion, the magic?

Will this photo make them cry?

Did it make me cry?

That’s my heart of wedding photography.
That’s why I love what I do-

And looking at it I LOVE my photography.

And THE Wedding Industry?

Instagram stole the wedding industry. It has made everyone forget the real why’s.

It has made it into a load of have to’s. It has made everyone hooked and focused on the wrong thing. Taken away the soul and replaced it with a shadow of fake. For who? Why Get married?

It turned weddings into a highlight reel, a checklist of ‘must-haves’.

It became an industry driven by trends and algorithms.
A show. It has become an industry of $$$.

This is not a I hate it, don’t use instagram, story.

This is me looking back, being observant. This comes from having lived and worked before and after social media.

This is me asking did instagram really steal my craft? or did I lose myself, because of my own insecurities, down the instagram hole.

After all it is self marketing, with a choice, directed by an algorithm and trends?

Did I choose not stand tall and firm on what I believed was the way to photograph a wedding? How I liked to photograph, what I saw and therefore what I showed.

Or was it Instagram that did not let me stay in my lane?

Things ebb and flow. The industry moves in cycles.
There will always be new trends, new platforms, new styles.
But we have a choice in how we respond.

And I take full responsibility.

There were moments when I let my insecurities win.
I looked outward too much, consumed too much, compared too much.
I forgot to look inward.

That’s human.

From a Ibiza wedding Photographer with many year behind me THIS IS MY BEST ADVISE;

To use the tools you need, to stay current but stay true to you. If you are making art and it is coming from within this is the only way. Always look back towards you, not out towards others. Hardest lesson to learn!

AND The best bit is: instagram has gone full circle too and now it is about being messy, being real, being who you are. No more fancy perfection, if that isn’t you!

Messy and real, raw and magical.

Oh yes that is for me then.