Wedding Photography Inspiration

Real Weddings

MELISSA WAHLER

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Wedding Photography Inspiration

Fun fact: when I was in photo school, people used to joke about wedding photographers. Instead of taking all the unsolicited “don’t get into weddings” advice, I took another route. Now, I use my experience at photo school for wedding photography inspiration.

“You went to photo school to become an artist – why would you want to photograph weddings?”
“We’re teaching a class this weekend called ‘How Not to Become a Wedding Photographer’ isn’t that exciting?”
“Weddings are too traditional to create art from”

There’s not a whole lot of support you get from your peers in the art community if you say you want to shoot weddings – but why? I NEVER understood this point of view.

ART SCHOOL AS WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATION

My time in all of my art & photo classes only served to inspire me even further, and I think weddings are the perfect opportunity to flex this art muscle and create personable, beautiful images for people on an extremely special day.

Another fun fact: watching Mad Men for the 3rd time has made me realize something else – every one of our strongest images in some way emulates the 60s or 70s. I’m steering into that skid HARD. Listen to any of my Spotify playlists and you’ll hear lots of disco, Zeppelin, and my favorite genre: music-that-sounds-old-but-is-actually-from-last-year.

As I’ve come into my own more and more, my relationship with photography has become less and less reliant on trying to copy and be like that photographer or that artist, and more and more about doing my best to capture feelings. That’s what wedding photography is about to me.

So what specifically inspires our work?

Black and white photojournalism.

Seriously, black & white/film photography is the bread and butter of the photo program from which we were thrust into the world. I (rebelliously) hated it for YEARS. Then I realized that was dumb and came from a place of insecurity and I’m actually obsessed with it and I did my senior thesis entirely in black & white film.

That brings me here.

Consider this a love letter to black & white. If you don’t love it, that’s fine! It’s not for everyone. Color is amazing and can tell a story in such a different way. If you do love b&w, share some of your favorite artists & images with me! I’d love to use it as inspiration in the future.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite b&w images along with their muse counterparts, if they have one. Feel free to use them as your own wedding inspiration.