The IMPERFECT

photographs by JOHN DOLAN

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Film Recommendations for Photographers

Films affect me deeply. Turn out the lights and I fall into the world created by the director and cinematographer, inhabited by the actors and the script. I am hypnotized by the soundtrack and open to a two hour journey.

I can still see Bo Radley inching out of the shadows in To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the earliest films to own me fully. The first Star Wars was also my first real date. As soon as Obi Wan appeared on screen I completely forgot where I was or who was next to me. The film society at my small college in WIsconsin opened my eyes to the history of cinema and taught the difference between movies and film.

For the next few weeks I will be posting selections of films that I found useful as I developed as a photographer. To start off, for my friends in the wedding community, here are five films that feel true to the reality of our Saturdays. Weddings have always felt episodic to me. Same script, new characters. So see if these films feel familiar to your experience and stay tuned for next weeks additions.

-       The Philadelphia Story, George Cukor, 1940: Reveals the beautiful chaos of a wedding weekend. I like how the magazine writer and the photographer become central to the story. The power of the press is in full force. With Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart.

-       Father of the Bride, Vincente Minnelli, 1950: See the original with Spencer Tracy & a young Elizabeth Taylor, (not the Steve Martin version). Shows the complexity and melancholy of weddings in a surprisingly honest way

-       Weddings and Babies, Morris Engel, 1958: Pioneer in independent film along with his wife, Ruth Orkin. Influenced Truffaut, Scorcese and others. Just watch this film.

-       A Wedding, Robert Altman, 1978: Hard to find and kind of a mess, but the small moments of honesty shocked me when I first saw it. Reveals the banal reality of a wedding

-       Big Night, Campbell Scott, 1996: Not a wedding film, per se, but it shares the same nervous energy of a rehearsal dinner. The host just wants everything to go right, but life does not always abide. The final scene of 2 brothers making breakfast the morning after is sublime. With Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub and Isabella Rossellini

-       Monsoon Wedding, Mira Nair, 2001: The blending of two families in India over several days of planning and partying, ending in an explosion of color and music. Takes the weekend wedding to a new level. A visual feast.

-       Wedding Crashers, David Dobkin, 2005: Easy to dismiss, but it offers some accurate scenes of speeches going very wrong and I am a sucker for Rachel McAdams.

-       Rachel Getting Married, Jonathan Demme, 2008: Shot documentary style, painfully captures the tumultuous family dynamics at play during a wedding weekend. Unflinching performance by Anne Hathaway.

Next week will focus on Cinematographers who have inspired me. Feel free to send me your favorite photo related films. 

[johndolanphotog]

8x10 Camera at a Wedding

Occasionally I bring my Kodak #2 8x10 View Camera (circa 1906) to weddings. I pull it out and shoot 2-4 frames at most. Slow photography.

I often shoot solo. I will set up the 8x10 and leave it over in a corner until I feel it is time.

These clients work in the film industry in NYC and specifically liked the idea of just a handful of family portraits with the view camera. Their wedding was intimate and so were their portraits. We made four exposures in just a few minutes on the sidewalk in Tribeca.

On a mountaintop in Western Pennsylvania I went for it. I rarely scout a job, but this time I went to the rehearsal on Friday and had a sense of the grandeur of this setting. I had plenty of time the day of the weddding to set the camera on a tripod and place it at the back for a wide panoramic view. I framed the shot, preloaded the film, set the exposure and asked the wedding coordinator to click the shutter when the bride walked past with her father. This all happened very fast. The planner balked at the idea of touching my strange camera, so, as I was shooting backward with my Leica and my medium format, I reached across and clicked this one frame.

When the light is this fine, nothing can beat a single sheet of 8x10 film.

The composition on this image is slightly tilted because the dog ran up the hill barking and bumped me before I clicked the shutter. There is a power to only getting one shot at it.

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A Wedding in 13 Photographs

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R & R

Summertime means all play, no guilt. Water is life. Laughter is deep. Time is elastic. Hands interlock. Naps are welcomed. Dancing is habitual. Sunsets are chased. Love is felt.

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Children of Chernobyl: A Summer in Co. Cork

Back in July, 1994, eight years after the explosion at Chernobyl, a group of children from Belarus arrived in West Cork, Ireland to spend a summer with Irish families. The goal was simple: Strengthen the immune systems of these children affected by the disaster. The surprising outcome was the strength of the bonds made between two cultures.

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First Mate

Each year several graduates of the US Naval Academy get married. Many on one day. Back in 1995, I covered this event for The Washington Post Magazine. The wedding ceremony is quick and to the point, followed by a traditional recession down the aisle, out the chapel doors and through a canopy of raised swords. At the bottom step, the sailor’s spouse is tapped lightly on the backside and christened with the words, “Welcome to the US Navy”.

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Men in Black

You will rarely find me in a tux, but I’m happy to shoot them all night long. First seen on Edward VII towards the end of the 19th century, the fit was deemed more dressy than a lounge suit, but not without the garnishes of a tailcoat. These ensembles continue to to entice me because of their simplicity. An unexpectedly thin bowtie here, a few colored buttons there. It’s always fun to see how one adorns themselves, and how slick men look when paired along side one another…

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Re-Engage

The Engagement Photo Session is a new concept for me. No one asked for it before last year, but now I am looking at it in a new light. For me, the point is to lock in this unique moment in time. That's it. I make no set plan, no shot list, just an hour spent with a couple, getting to know each other. While we share a glass of wine, I am looking to see how these two people are together. Body language, subtle dynamics. The session is like a blind date for the three of us. As much as a bride and groom need their own chemistry, a couple must feel a seamless comfort and ease with their wedding photographer.

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THE IMPERFECT

I have some reflections on the role we play as photographers.

Pop culture would have us believe that a wedding must be perfect down to every last detail to be successful. I see things differently. In my experience, it is precisely the unpredictability of a wedding that often makes it memorable. Photographers have a great opportunity to look beyond the shot list and find beauty and truth in these imperfect moments.

Current trends in photography have inadvertently reinforced an unattainable ideal of perfection by focusing on the flawless over the real. Brides and grooms may not realize that many of the images they see online are actually produced during styled shoots, shot weeks before the actual wedding. While these photographs may be inspirational, they often end up creating an unrealistic expectation of what can be achieved during a compressed and stressed wedding timeline. What if wedding photographs aren’t only meant to depict dreamy romance, but instead, chronicle a full range of emotions?

Photographs have the ability to reveal what it felt like to be there; the light, the air, the tension and the euphoria. As photographers, we have the power to bring the viewer back to that moment, even years later, by showing an honest version of events.

I believe my role as photographer is to witness and record in a sincere and loving way. Since a wedding is a ticking clock, I must constantly choose where to focus my energy. I can’t allow my quest for a perfect photo to become the reason I miss an emotionally important, fleeting moment.

Photographing a wedding is a live performance. Here are a few of my mantras:

-Resist the urge to play it safe. Aim high and avoid the easy.

-Imagine what photographs a couple will want in 20 years. Make those photos.

-Take the pulse of a situation before you raise your camera.

-Shoot fast, stay present, then allow yourself to pause once the moment has passed.

-Weddings are poignant lessons in human nature. Take notes.

-Your behavior as a photographer affects the photos.

-Gently coax couples into pools of sweet light, then let them be themselves.

-Celebrate with your couple, you have been part of  something unforgettable.

When I look at a wedding photograph I ask myself, “Do I believe it?” Is it specific to this couple, this moment, this place? The key is that the emotions of the moment should come from the couple, rather than from the photographer. Let the subject feel the weight of the moment. It is their wedding after all and we are just guests.

Right before our eyes are small moments of true emotion that reveal intricacies about relationships.The challenge is to get a powerful image by observing and interacting, rather than staging a preset moment. This approach is riskier than a scripted shoot, but can also be more rewarding. Better yet, it can be authentic and specific to that couple on that day.

A great wedding is a circle of loved ones spinning together in a swirl of love and laughter. Great music helps. Add some wine and a few heartfelt words. Those are the ingredients of a memorable wedding, perfect in all its imperfections.

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And The Next Contestant

It was 1992. I was on assignment for German Marie Claire. Two days at a Children's Beauty Pageant in Melbourne Beach, Florida. No child fit one mold. Some girls possessed a quiet confidence. Others displayed resistance. Some girls reveled in the theater of it all, but some girls just wanted to swim. Too bad they couldn't get their hair wet.

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Deep End

Let go. Take the dive. Fly, float, freeze. Free fall. Gravity wins. Sometimes we need encouragement to take the plunge. Many of these photos were taken in Ireland where the water temperature hovers around 60 degrees. It can be frightening to jump, but continues to entice even the most timid swimmers to feel the thrill of the drop.

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Splendor in the Grass

When was the last time you laid down in the grass and looked up? I can’t help but find a childlike sense of pleasure in these photos. Children have the innate ability to find joy under all kinds of circumstances. As we grow up, we carry more and more fears and inhibitions. (Reasons to not roll down that hill.) It is useful to release ourselves from the stress of modern life every so often. I would bet money that it wasn’t a middle-aged 9-5er who discovered the fun in rolling down hills.

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Thoughts On A Wedding

No wedding is perfect, nor should we expect that. Life is not perfect. But all weddings are memorable, some unforgettable.

Leah and Bob planned to marry. Yet they did not plan on a Leukemia diagnosis for Leah, a star collegiate runner.

The father of the bride, Steve, organized a wedding in three weeks. He called it "a wedding in a box”, ready to be fit between chemo treatments when the doctor gave the go-ahead.

When that day came, last May in Buffalo, light rain fell and–out of concern for weakened immunity–only 20 guests were allowed to attend. Leah and Bob recited their vows, including to love one another in sickness and in health.

Of all the weddings I photographed in 2016, this simple two-hour affair stands out. May we all be reminded that beneath the theater of a wedding is the true perfection, the linking of two lives.

200 days after a successful bone marrow transplant, Chatham, New York, New Years Eve, 2016.

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Hat Trick

Fashion, function, flirtation, fantasy. Hats change with our needs. Headpieces hold cultural significance far more than other common accessories. Veils, cowboy hats, yarmulkes, baseball caps. Simple objects that hold great power over people’s perception of us.

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Change Channels

I listen to radio. A lot. I listen while I edit, while I drive, while I do the dishes. I listen to get inspired and focused.

I flip around for variety: New Wave on satellite radio. San Diego public radio (morning surf report). My favorite podcasts. 1950’s jazz. Some classical. Old playlists on iTunes. I like to be surprised in my feed.

When I scroll through Instagram, I hope for that same sense of discovery and surprise. Instead, I often feel like I’m looking at the equivalent of soft rock, easy listening music. So much looks similar, safe, predictable. All one channel, one genre. I want to see photos that wake me up. I want to have my eyes stretched, to feel a range of emotions, not just the warm fuzzy feeling of two people in love.

If you think of an early medieval ballad, of Muddy Waters blues, Joni Mitchell, Radiohead, Beyonce, these artists write love songs that sound nothing alike.

To me, no matter the genre or art form, the question is does this work ring true? Do I believe it?

How do we expand the definition of a “good” wedding or engagement photograph? Can we create new channels?

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Weddings make me a better commercial photographer…and vice versa. Some of these images were real moments and some were orchestrated. Can you tell which is which?

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Every wedding has obstacles, but this year required a special skill set to make it down the aisle. Each of these 5 weddings below required small miracles. Here are some of my favorite moments along with the challenges they faced.