Wedding Research

(By Emily Coddington, Alexis Livingston, Stefanie Ryan)

Father Walking Down the Aisle with Bride




Wedding Day: 1968


Father of the Bride

Modern versions:


Davina & Daniel


Blushing Bride

The father of the bride walking her down the aisle to her new husband is quite the old tradition. It is not photographed all that often and is found more rarely in modern times.

Group Shots:

The Wedding


Edwardian Wedding: 1904


Modern Versions:


Blushing Bride

The Women:


Blushing Bride

The Men:


Blushing Bride

Older group shots were focused on family and often seem to follow a list of who gets to be in the big group shot (bride, groom, their parents and grandparents). Nowadays, photos of the couple and their parents are rarely found online as modern photographers focus more on the groomsmen and bridesmaids for their portfolios. Photos are often found of the men and women separately as seen above.

Car shots:


And Away We Go: 1956


Gramma and Grampa: 1948

Modern Version:


Blushing Bride


Blushing Bride

In the car department, it was much easier to find posed, fixed photograpghs of the couple leaving after marriage while looking at old photographs. Modern photographers tend to capture more documentary style photographs of both the groom and bride arriving and them leaving together after the wedding.

Food/Still Life Research

Sorry these aren't on my flickr, I accidentally exceeded my monthly upload limit.

Christina Peters:


Kevin Smith:





Teri Lyn Fisher





Some more creative shots :

Carl Klein


Chema Madoz



Carlo Facchini




More from Christina Peters:

Narrative Portraits

the girl who didn't belong

Narrative Research

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54367056@N05/sets/72157625077054833/show/

Environmental Portraits

These are some of the environmental portraits I've taken in the past.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54367056@N05/sets/72157625050699515/

The good and the bad portraits

Good Slideshow.

Bad Slideshow.

Emulation Project

I tried emulating Elene Usdin beautiful photographs by creating my own crazy concepts. Not sure that my photos look as ''innocent'' as hers but I did have a lot of fun shooting these. My favourite would be the first one, though I think the one I succeeded the most in emulating Elene Usdin's style would be the fourth one (with the lovely wallpaper).

Photoshop Assignment

Based on tutorial

Desaturated contrasty

Light black and white with noise

Assignment 2

Elene Usdin:






Elene Usdin is a French photographer who specializes in creative portraits. She uses natural or diffused lighting most of the time. Usdin often photographs little scenarios in which models are in whimsical situations, often involving sleep. She uses a lot of props for her photos to achieve a certain mood.

Assignment 1

Diane Arbus' portraits seem to always be lit with direct flash or flash a bit off to one side. Arbus doesn't focus on making the subject look good but rather exposing their true self, their eccentric nature. She doesn't make her subjects pose, she just makes them look at the lens. Generally, there are no props to be found in the picture: just the subject and whatever clothing they are wearing. Arbus really focuses on her subject and tends to fill the whole square frame with the person. I personally really enjoy her style; I love the shots she's done of ''alternative lifestyles'' and such. Her images feel real, they show people for who they really are and not what society's norms would like them to be.





Going in an opposite direction, there's Edward Steichen. He has no interest in showing the true nature in people; he is a lot more fascinated by the glamourous side of his subjects. Steichen sees beauty as this still, posed facade people have. Contrarily to Arbus, he asks his subjects to pose in an elegant manner and often with props (as seen above on all three photographs). He often uses side lighting to accentuate faces and his photographs are usually filled with interesting shadows to add a little extra to each photo. I also enjoy Steichen's strong sense of beauty and elegance.

I think both photographers are amazing at what they do and I find it hard to pick a favourite out of the two.







August Sander also takes photographs in a ''true'' manner. He often shoots environmental portraits where like Arbus, doesn't ask his subjects to smile but just stare into the camera. Sander is more interested in what people do and how they feel towards it instead of who they are. Any props used in one of images has to do with whatever the subject does for a living. He seems to use flash but off camera.





Sally Mann's style is a lot more focused on feelings, especially those of children. Looking at her photographs, you can often feel what the subject is feeling. Mann doesn't pose her subjects; she captures them doing whatever they were doing. The props are also related to whatever the subject was doing at the time and they add a feel of realism to each photograph. The lighting is most likely natural or very diffused flash in some cases. Like Arbus, Mann often captures these odd little moments. She also has this strange elegance to her photographs even though they are not posed in the slightest.