The Demise of Wedding Photography?

A bit of a dramatic headline? Or not? Is wedding photography dying as a profession? I have had a lot of conversations recently about wedding photography and where it is heading, and now I want to share my thoughts, and get some opinions. I still love weddings, and have no plans to stop shooting them in the foreseeable future, but what is going on? I have seen some great photographers disappear from the industry, and some absolutely awful part time photographers sweeping up the bookings. What is going on?

I reluctantly shot my first wedding 21 years ago. I say reluctantly, because I didn’t feel ready for it. Was I ready? Well, my first few weddings were very small, low budget, and with low expectation levels. Clients knew I was just starting out. The problem was, there were very, very few people shooting weddings, and in fact very few photographers around of any genre.

Photography was seen as a very skilled profession. It was pre digital cameras, and everyone shot on film. There was no preview of your images, and no luxury of shooting a tonne of stuff as that would cut right into your already small profit. Over the years technology has moved on, and I for one am not complaining about that. The pressure of shooting on film has gone, and the ability to instantly see your image is definitely a positive thing.

Fast forward to around 2002, and I moved over to digital, still in a world where photography was classed as a great skill. There were no more photographers at that stage either. It was not seen as a way to make a quick buck. Technology moved at a very fast rate at that time, and the next 6-7 years saw huge leaps in quality of camera, with the prices dropping at a similar rate. Still, by around 2012/2013 it was still a great industry to be part of. It was seen as a great job, and I was proud when I answered the question of “what do you do for a living?” Nowadays I usually have to follow it up with “no, that’s my full time career”. It is no longer seen as anything other than a hobby to most people.

In the last few years, it has become apparent that most people with an SLR considers themselves a photographer. 14 likes on Facebook for a photo of a cat taking a shit on the worktop, and the next day there’s a watermark on the aforementioned cat owners photos, saying ‘Joe Bloggs Photography’ and if they get 20 likes it will even have a copyright symbol. This has exploded exponentially in the last year or so, to the point where I know more photographers than non photographers. Okay I may have exaggerated somewhat, but you get the idea. Every day someone shares another ‘photographers’ work, alongside some hugely complimentary adjectives. A quick glance confirms yet another hobbyist with a camera, but try telling the social media army that….

It has been said many times that the main reason there are so many people claiming to be photographers, is the leap of technology, where it has become easier to take a decent photo, and to an extent that is true. However, we had great technology 15+ years ago. What has changed other than that?

Well, in my opinion, photography, and weddings in particular, has been killed by social media. Facebook in particular has destroyed the industry, and I have no idea how it can ever recover. I hope someone can share some thoughts on how it can be rescued as it becomes a race to the bottom.

Why is Facebook to blame, I hear people asking? Well there are several answers to this, and I am going to tell you how I see it.

Firstly Facebook has made it easier for people to ‘claim’ to be photographers. My way of looking at things is, if I post a photograph on social media and it gets 100 likes, that is all well and good. But who is liking it? Because family and friends don’t count. Sorry family and friends, I enjoy your support and appreciate, and please don’t stop. However what really shows if my work is any good, is likes from strangers. From other photographers. From people who have an eye for it, but do not feel they have to like it because I posted it. Unfortunately, when people start out, and Auntie Agnes is saying ‘oh that is amazing, you should do this for a job’, they start to believe it. If you are starting out, enjoy the family feedback, but do not take it as representative of the public feelings towards your images.

Facebook recommendations. Okay, so this is a personal bugbear of mine. People feel when they see a post like this, that they absolutely have to suggest someone. This ends up with 400 comments, about 396 of whom are not photographers in the true meaning of the word professional….as in they do it as a profession. I swear in every village, every street, someone is saying “Hey Bill, who’s that guy/girl at your work with the nice camera? I liked that photo she took of her cat last week”. IT’S A FECKING WEDDING! How the person looking for a photographer is supposed to choose someone for the most special day of his/her life, is beyond me. I am always flattered to be recommended on these posts, but equally know that the person who posted is unlikely to even see my work in that sea of utter randomness. That person is genuinely after a wedding photographer. They are not desperate, they want advice. If you don’t have any, don’t feel you have to give it.

The next problem is that people see so much content, so many images, every hour of every day, that society in general cannot tell a good photo from a bad one. The world has gone photo mad, camera phones snapping literally every moment of every day. This is a good thing, as we are recording memories, but actual quality photography is being diluted, and often lost as people scroll through so many images that they become numb to what they are seeing. They won’t stop for a few seconds and look at emotion, feeling, lighting, expression, posing. They see something they consider ‘cute’ double tap it, and move on. It has become almost impossible to stand out, when before it was easy if you had a bit of creativity and imagination. In fact, as a photographer, I am increasingly having to unlearn many skills, as people don’t want that any more.

That is the society we live in nowadays, and for every negative to this, there is a positive, and I am not complaining about social media in general, just looking for reasons why wedding photography is literally dying and being beaten to death with a shitty stick. Social media has its place, and can be a great thing. Just not for my industry.

There are roughly the same number of people getting married now as there was ten years ago. It may have dropped marginally, but not enough to ever be seen as a problem. In fact the popularity of civil partnerships, humanist weddings, along with the ability to get married anywhere you can imagine, could have made it more fashionable in recent years. When I started it was either a church or registry office, and that was it.

The difference is, and I am guessing on the numbers, but I’d say there are more than ten times as many people competing for the same number of weddings. Possibly much more to be honest. Of that vast number of photographers, I’d say 75%, maybe more, do it as a hobby. They don’t have bills to pay, probably don’t have insurance, possibly don’t pay tax, and ultimately they are doing it for extra cash or to boost their ego outside of a boring day job. A chance to feel important. Do they give a shit about your wedding? Arguably many do, but how do you know? How do you know when you book this cheap/amateur photographer, that in a years time he won’t have a better idea how to use his weekends? I have seen soooo many last minute panic searches recently when a ‘photographer’ has let a couple down, because he has to work, or has something more interesting to attend. This is a whole other blog post so I will leave it there.

So, where do we go from here? I think I am getting to the stage where I am giving up on facebook as a platform to showcase wedding photography. My business page is hidden from the public unless I pay regularly for adverts.

Is wedding photography dead? I don’t think so, but it is in intensive care, and needs urgent attention, or it will be gone. There’s no going back once it has reached rock bottom. Comment on this post with your thoughts folks!