Andreas Avdoulos — Documentary photographer of ephemeral human moments.
Contact — theandreasphoto@gmail.com
I have some thoughts about wedding photography, and more specifically, the role that we play in the lives of the people who invite us to document a small part of their life story.
Having photographed many multicultural weddings over the years—ranging from intimate, family-only gatherings to large scale, multi-day celebrations, I’ve been a witness to an incredible range of rituals, traditions, and ways that we come together to celebrate an event that connects us all, and for all our differences, there is one element that we all share — the human desire to experience and celebrate joy together.
A marriage is a legal and cultural act that symbolizes a new family connection; and the wedding day is the celebratory part of that tradition.
Within the confines of that one day, there are countless moments that happen authentically that tell the story of that day, and quite often, those are actually the most cherished photographs for the couple.
However, the “wedding machine” would have you believe that for your wedding to be a “success”, and for that matter, for the photographs to be “good”, it needs to fit into a certain aesthetic — a dreamy fairytale life event with all the extras thrown in to make sure that the day is “instagram worthy”.
The pressure to manufacture these moments just to make content for what is ultimately just a superficial online audience is a direct result of time spent in that echo chamber — and it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating simple and repeatable imagery at each wedding.
Nothing in life is perfect — far from it, but when it comes to wedding photography, I really do believe that letting go of that ideal makes for a much more enjoyable and memorable photographs—and quite often, that’s more than enough.
