I Am Not A Wedding Photographer

Published to accompany an exhibition of the same name which was held at the Martin Parr Foundation in summer 2019.

 "I've tried, I really have, but there's no easy way to tell you that I'm not a Wedding Photographer.

I mean, as much as I’d love to stand around for hours lining people up, ordering them around and talking photographs of every combination of family member & guest, I’ve more important things to be doing.

And quite frankly, so have you.

Things happen at a Wedding, things that make your wedding yours, unique to you, and if I’m busy ordering people around I’m going to miss those things. Your feet will be tired from standing and your face will hurt from smiling so much and you’ll have missed those things too.

It’d be like those things never happened and all you’ve really got to look back at are groups of people, annoyed people, with forced smiles.

Uniqueness doesn't have a template, it doesn't have a formula and it certainly can’t be pigeon holed.

If I came to your wedding with any idea about how it should be, should look or should not look, then that’s not your wedding, or at least it’s not how your wedding should be documented.

I’m completely unbiased in the photographs I make. A sort of photographic democracy where one photograph is no more important than any other. Where all things are equal, people the same as objects.

Emotion and gesture and dancing and wine and door knobs and fancy lights and funny faces and shoes will all be treated the same.

Those things are yours on your day, and it all means something to you. I don’t have packages and there is no set amount of time that I’ll be there. I can’t tell you exactly how many photographs you’ll get, but I can tell you that you’ll get them all. There're yours, I make them for you." - Ian Weldon