Documentary Wedding Photographer | New York + Destination Wedding Photographer | Documentary Style Photography
Here’s What Documentary Wedding Photography Is (and Isn’t)
If you’re looking to have your the poignant moments, surprises, happy tears, and funny reactions captured at your celebration, then you’re looking for a documentary wedding photographer.
Here’s what documentary photography is, and why capturing your celebration authentically is so important.
Article and photos by destination documentary wedding photographer Kathryn Cooper Weddings
What is documentary wedding photography?
Documentary wedding photography is a photography style that documents your celebration in a candid, fly-on-the-wall way. When you hire a professional who offers documentary style wedding photography, it means you’ll get photos that tell the story of your day without much posing, from beginning to end.
Thus, when you get your wedding photo gallery back, you essentially get a documentary in photo format of your day, that shows what your celebration felt like, including all the joy, tears, surprise, mischievous happening, and more.
I’m Kathryn Cooper Weddings, a vibrant documentary wedding photographer—and in this article are examples of documentary photography, clarifying terms, and a guide to help you find the best photographer for you.
Why documentary photography? What’s so great about it?
People are real, and moments are real. I love to document it all: The surprise, the unexpected, wiping away a tear, cracking up, jumping in the pool, and so much more.
When photographers put down their cameras and wait for a moment to pose people, you’re missing that rawness, that authenticity, that…flavor. Most people find that “perfect” wedding photos just don’t look authentic, and that true photos tell a story over time. There’s the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the hidden looks, and the joy.
Imagine I capture your day with my creative (planned, fun shots based on your personalities and hobbies) AND documentary photography style (surprise photos, laughter, a photo of your grandpa crying, your friend doing a crazy dance move you never saw, and that wonderful feeling of being transported right back in the middle of your wedding day). Does that sound like what you want? If so, you’re on the right page.
Scrolling down, I list the different styles of wedding photography, and also explain that 95% of photographers blend styles, giving you both unposed and posed shots.
So the good news is, you don’t have to choose just one! But, since you’re here, you likely want to learn more about the style of wedding photography we call documentary.
Documentary wedding photography by a different name
There are many kinds of wedding photography styles that are nearly identical to documentary, but go by a different name. That can be confusing for sure.
Think of it like this: If you’re looking online for a red chair to make your living room pop, you’ll also want to look up similar yet slightly different terms, such as “crimson recliner,” “garnet colored seat,” or “wooden chair frame in wine color.” Google it, and you’ll see those are all real things, and net you slightly different results than just a “red chair” search.
In this same vein, if you’re looking for incredible documentary style wedding photography, you’ll want to research using several search terms. This is especially true in other countries, such as the UK, where words have slightly different meanings.
Options to try:
-Documentary wedding photographer near me
-Reportage wedding photography (common in the UK)
-Candid wedding photographer
-Wedding photojournalist
-Narrative wedding photos
-Storytelling photographer
-Unstaged photography
-Real weddings style photos
-Unposed wedding documentation
-Authentic photography
-In-the-moment photography
Then there are similar, but slightly different word pairs that often go together:
-Photojournalism style wedding photos
-Candid documentary photographer (what I call myself, since people often know one word but not necessarily the other)
-Adventure elopement photographer with candid moments
-Docu wedding photos
-Documentary elopement photographer
-Photography reportage
-Real wedding storytelling
-Destination documentary photojournalist
Now, no one is suggesting you need to go to Google, Bing, or Safari and type in every single search term combination to find the best wedding photographer for you. What I am suggesting, however, is that if you love this kind of raw photography coverage, you may need to search for it at least a few different ways. Use Google Images to kind of narrow down a bit of what you want, ask your friends, search on Instagram and Google, and find a few options you truly love. You can even find personal recommendations in Facebook groups and Reddit groups, posting with these specific keywords, color style, date, budget, and location.
What are the differences among all these types of photography?
Great question, and I wish I had an easier answer.
In simple terms, most of these styles–photojournalism, documentary, candid, reportage–are the same.
Compared to other wedding photography styles, they are VERY different from the rest.
–Traditional wedding photography leans toward captured posed moments, looking in the camera, and getting explicit directions for how to look and stand
-Editorial wedding photography is all about magazine-worthy poses involving lighting setups, specific arm positions, and fashion influences
-Fine art wedding photography combines details and editorial to make very artistic shots of moments, still life, and more
–Compare these all to the styles we’re talking about, which is documentary/candid/reportage/natural/photojournalism, all of which is about not posing, but just living your day and then seeing all the photos that capture the moments over posed subjects
A strict artist/word aficionado will find fault with this, saying there are many nuances.
Documentary wedding photographers document the day, generally from beginning to end. From the first look until the dancing and bonfire, this style is a way to get full coverage of your day, just like a movie documentary that starts at the beginning and has an ending. You generally get that feeling of being transported back to your wedding day with this narrative storytelling approach.
Wedding photojournalists can range from strictly reporting the moments and not posing you at all, to light posing (some traditional photos). Photojournalists often come from the news or war model, so think of how an event or moment might be documented in a very raw, emotion-driven way. It’s not necessarily a story over the whole day, but sometimes just brief moments. That said, most photojournalists still do some posing!
Candid wedding photographers also capture celebrations in a mostly hands-off way, though they are often prepping couples more for what to do (called posed candids of walking, laughing, twirling), then capturing your wedding with a little more coaching and planning, while still being natural.
Reportage photography is more of a European term, and very commonly used in the UK. It’s similar to all of these, and is documentary style wedding photography with a behind-the-scenes approach.
Remember: These are general definitions, and they’ve changed over time and will continue to do so–so asking your photographers how they work when you are interviewing them is more important than any specific word.
Documentary wedding photography examples
Getting right into it, I’ll share 2 photos:
This top one is lovely, but posed (not documentary). It’s a couple eloping at sunset, and they know they’re getting their photo taken.
Now, this one below is documentary, and shows the bride getting up after falling into a hole in the sand. Luckily she wasn’t hurt and couldn’t stop laughing! She didn’t even know I was there because she was laughing so hard she was crying, and had just gone face-first in the sand.
Here’s another more traditional photo below, of a couple in fall wildflowers. They’re not staring at the camera, but it’s still a semi-posed moment:
And now below, a delightful but very candid photojournalism moment of a hora, just trying not to fall off the chair.
If you can see the differences, documentary photos are reactive, whereas traditional are proactive.
They’re all beautiful, and some occasions more candid than others, but ideally most people want a good mix of documenting their wedding day and catching the planned moments as well.
Documentary wedding photos must be easy, right?
Ah no, they’re definitely not. Because documentary wedding photographers are going for a natural, authentic look, they have to be even more attentive and alert–often having two cameras on them at all times. Catching reportage wedding photos means anticipating the moment, and that requires a ton of experience.
It’s not luck being in the right place at the right time; it’s skill, and takes years and decades of understanding people, seeing where the action might be, following around that one nephew, and having the settings dialed in for the big (and small) moments.
Being a great documentary photographer, whether in weddings, events, or travel, is all about using a keen eye and experience to almost predict what’s about to happen, and being prepared when it does. Easy? Not a chance!
The truth? Most photographers are a combination of styles
Nearly every elopement or wedding photographer I’ve ever known, met, or known of has a combination of styles.
Yes, there are many photographer who ONLY take posed photos, and don’t want to take shots where anyone isn’t ready. They are typically more traditional/editorial photographers.
On the flip side, there are a few strictly photojournalist wedding photographers who ONLY use a fly-on-the-wall approach, sometimes not even really speaking to anyone. No posed photos, no family formals, etc.
However…most photographers are a combination of styles, and most documentary photographers still take some posed portraits and family photos in addition to documenting your day. It’s often a 75% candid / 25% posed kind of split, ensuring you have the smiling, looking-into-the-camera portraits with your family and wedding party, and also the laughter, tears, and surprise of the day.
Style…and “color style”
In addition to figuring out what style you want (traditional, editorial, fine art, or documentary–all defined below), you’ll also want to figure out the color style you like, which generally falls into three categories.
Wedding Photography Color Styles:
- Vibrant/natural/true-to-color (this is essentially my personal style)
- Dark & moody
- Light & airy
There are varieties within all of these, but these 3 basic categories can be combined to narrow down your search.
“Dark & moody photojournalist Flagstaff” or “vibrant candid wedding photographer Hudson Valley” will really help you have better success in your search!
What Documentary Wedding Photography is really about
Hiring a documentary wedding photographer is truly about avoiding all the stiff, awkward photos that your parents and grandparents probably took, and more about capturing the unplanned moments.
Want to look at your wedding photos and feel right back where you were, in the moment? Hire a candid documentary wedding photographer~
For questions, comments, or inquiries, contact me here.
Kathryn Cooper Weddings: Candid Documentary Wedding Photographer | Hudson Valley NY Wedding Photography | Photography Reportage