imo it probably comes from the pre-internet tradition of running an engagement announcement (typically accompanied by a photo) in your local newspaper.
the advent of internet + social media + digital photography has changed it in to something else
?
― gr8080, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:01 (nine years ago) link
the nytimes still does wedding/engagement announcements (lower left at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/fashion/weddings/index.html) and they are totally a vanity thing. A friend's engagement was listed and it was completely because his wife's parents were very into token status things.
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:09 (nine years ago) link
what do couples think is the purpose; how do they use these photos? put up on a website? shared on Facebook? saved for future children’s parent-mocking?
"shared on Facebook" is about all the explanation this needs IMO. Presumably the photographers talk up this angle to their clients, but I doubt most need that much convincing. It lets them post something NOW, get beaucoups of likes and comments and build the brand of their wedding months in advance of the wedding shots.
I also suspect wedding photos themselves feel less personal or meaningful in 2015 than years ago when you only saw the wedding albums of people you actually gave a shit about (well, and coworkers and such) and so it was kinda rare to see images of tuxes and white gowns in front of green grass or whatever. Sorta like baby pictures. Now virtually every day I'm brushing past the wedding or baby photos of someone I don't know very well on Facebook. I could imagine couples having some (not necessarily articulated or voiced) desire to have something that feels more "casual" or "like us" or with "real reactions" to each other and/or some quirky scenario. Something with "personality" - which is tough to do in the wedding shots unless you do a theme wedding (something still way out on the fringe).
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:10 (nine years ago) link
every wedding is a theme wedding, in a way
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:14 (nine years ago) link
ours was drunkenness
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 16 March 2015 18:20 (nine years ago) link
http://greenweddingshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/chocolate-engagement-party-09.jpg
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:22 (nine years ago) link
I would like to think the groom was looking at a print of that picture of the bride
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 18:23 (nine years ago) link
PiP typically used to show another thing at the same time
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 16 March 2015 18:31 (nine years ago) link
Couples can also submit their photos to magazines like this one: http://engagedri.com/category/engagements/ for some nifty pub.
― pplains, Monday, 16 March 2015 19:27 (nine years ago) link
also some half-baked theory abt the secularization of middle class american culture/ 15min of fame/ capitalism making ppl consumers of everything (even when what was once tradition)
idk
― gr8080, Monday, 16 March 2015 19:42 (nine years ago) link
I haven't been to a "cool" wedding but of friends-of-friends who had one, they had much less cool divorces
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 19:45 (nine years ago) link
I could imagine couples having some (not necessarily articulated or voiced) desire to have something that feels more "casual" or "like us" or with "real reactions" to each other and/or some quirky scenario. Something with "personality" - which is tough to do in the wedding shots unless you do a theme wedding (something still way out on the fringe).
that makes sense. also gr8080’s social explanation: it’s a public statement/ performance not just for family but larger community, which (for many) is now expected.photogs & couples imitate the look and tropes of on-trend engagement photos, some also (ostensibly) try to stake out some uniqueness/ originality/ authenticity.also maybe the personal family “photo album” with candid pictures has lost its aura— world inundated with e.g. stream of flickr/ Facebook images; hence need for patina of “professional” photography to mark out these photographs (and what they commemorate) as special, as an “event”
(imo the professional sheen just flattens & drains the photographs of any aura-- makes most look like stock photography)
anyway, the props
http://www.theochoink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_7473.jpghttp://stylesbyanndiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/13-SF-Bay-Area-Engagement-Session-Photography.jpg
― drash, Monday, 16 March 2015 19:45 (nine years ago) link
This is also because a lot of the photographers aren't very good though! Like very little of what's been posted in this thread really seems like it's done by photographers who (a) know their shit and (b) care about getting good photos out of their subjects (c) have the slightest idea how to do that. Not to say any of that would make them immune to photography zeitgeist and trends and so on, or that you could even really avoid that if you tried - - - most wedding photographs from the 70s (or 80s, or 90s) kinda look alike, cause of different film stock and hairstyles and so on. That can't be helped, but a good photographer should know when they're looking through the lens and seeing something awkward, stagey, inadvertently loveless, or otherwise worthy of this thread.
I know a married photographer couple in Columbus who do really solid engagement and wedding work, I think because #1 they take their craft as photographers pretty seriously and #2 they seem to actually like the couples and want them to look good.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:08 (nine years ago) link
This is also because a lot of the photographers aren't very good though! Like very little of what's been posted in this thread really seems like it's done by photographers who (a) know their shit and (b) care about getting good photos out of their subjects (c) have the slightest idea how to do that.
True! Takes great skill & sensibility to be a good portrait photographer.
Yet I think something about the genre itself (at least current incarnation of it) is intrinsically... pitfally. But this may be my (photographic & psychological) biases talking.
― drash, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:34 (nine years ago) link
Soon-to-be married couples are generally pretty awkward anyway. It crosses the line when somehow the photographer emphasizes that awkwardness.
I mean, of all the goofy shit that's been posted here, I think this thread still could be summed up by this one gr8080 posted four years ago.
http://i.imgur.com/Ow1M7cC.jpg
I mean, why why why did the photographer make those people do that?
― pplains, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:38 (nine years ago) link
xpost Sure - for one thing, the whole impulse ("our engagement is different from all the other engagements") is fallacious, and so there are any number of ways that the photos can founder. But this is true of lots of "special" events that are only special because they're happening to you or your friends/family. Maybe what's changed is just the quantity/visibility of strangers' images; realizing just how many billions of beardos are doing the same woodland authenticity photos as you are surely has to make it harder to pull off the affect without the photos collapsing into self-awareness and/or irony.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:39 (nine years ago) link
I mean lawd…
http://i.imgur.com/2Kkdgvc.jpg
― pplains, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:44 (nine years ago) link
photography is so weird, you can get the lights and exposure and shutter time right, but if you're taking pictures of people, you have to have an entirely different skillset
my friend (an architect) helped this dude who is a professional architecture photographer one time and it's amazing what you can do with technique. however, the same photographer also does portraits of people who work for the studios, and I kid you not, the people end up looking like buildings
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:55 (nine years ago) link
i could 100% believe that - - - over the past half-decade i've shifted to mainly shooting architecture, from primarily doing friendly people-pictures and candids and i've lost a whole set of skills related to the latter, even as i've improved as "a photographer" generically.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 16 March 2015 20:58 (nine years ago) link
did I admit on another thread that I had yr building pics as the screensaver on my appletv for a while? good stuff
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:11 (nine years ago) link
Yeah that’s… unfortunate.
Problem with the genre is, what is it a photograph “of”? At least wedding pictures document and commemorate an event. Engagement photos aim to represent, what… a couple’s “love” for each other? A symbolic representation of their commitment?
It’s so hard to do that without falling into awkwardness, staginess, cliche.
In a way it’s safer to half-ironically play on pop culture motifs than— have them look into each other’s eyes.
― drash, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:15 (nine years ago) link
a picture of the young couple filing a joint tax return
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 16 March 2015 21:19 (nine years ago) link
or rolling a joint
― mattresslessness, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:20 (nine years ago) link
now that's more like it
― drash, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:21 (nine years ago) link
taking their first tax return and spending it all on one really big joint, which they light using a mini cooper that's caught fire
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 16 March 2015 21:25 (nine years ago) link
I'm all about the story a picture tells
― Team Foxcatcherwatcher (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 16 March 2015 21:26 (nine years ago) link
this one couple's epic engagement night
― mattresslessness, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:27 (nine years ago) link
or one year anniversary i guess
― mattresslessness, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:28 (nine years ago) link
reposting this from upthread 5years ago
http://i.imgur.com/nRZMYVw.png
― gr8080, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:34 (nine years ago) link
I hope that is their actual wedding
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:35 (nine years ago) link
god
― mattresslessness, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
pipe dreams really do come true
i went to high school with that dude & yes it was his actual wedding
― gr8080, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
that makes me really happy
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
u got more pictures from that wedding?
― Steph def def (Spottie), Monday, 16 March 2015 21:45 (nine years ago) link
i don't think so, lost to the sands of myspace
― gr8080, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:50 (nine years ago) link
so are the days of our lives
― mh, Monday, 16 March 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
a friend of mine had a photography sideline for a while...everything was suuuper processed and filters up the wazoo but what was striking was how even when they were people i knew, mutual friends we both hung out with & knew well even, everyone looked so stiff & awkward! i swear every shot looked like those bad stock photos they put in cheap walletsit was kind of a bummer
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 16 March 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
when the people get a little older all the couples photos look like big pharma ads
― groundless round (La Lechera), Monday, 16 March 2015 22:51 (nine years ago) link
the mini cooper 1, not that it makes any sense, is kinda cool. idk id pay 2 be in a greg crewsdon photo prob
― johnny crunch, Monday, 16 March 2015 23:00 (nine years ago) link
mh, i do recall you saying something like that and feeling very flattered/bashful - thanks again though, for real! I gotta get back into a regular posting groove.
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 01:15 (nine years ago) link
Your Flickr is all-time, Dr Casino. I believe that means "very good".
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 11:26 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/DlpVSlQ.jpg
― 龜, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 11:38 (nine years ago) link
^^ dude is stoned and proposed via video game, a+
― mh, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 13:14 (nine years ago) link
proposals
nadam had em
― Mordy, Tuesday, 17 March 2015 13:19 (nine years ago) link
http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan2%28pp_w950_h707%29.jpghttp://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindesy-logan1%28pp_w950_h707%29.jpghttp://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan3.jpg
― drash, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 20:58 (nine years ago) link
realized what many engagement photos remind me of— not portraits, but tv show promo pictures
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luh4eny0Dm1qc30y1.jpghttp://buffycomics.hellmouthcentral.com/covers/spike_dru01.jpg
― drash, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan3.jpg vs http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luh4eny0Dm1qc30y1.jpg
FITE
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Wednesday, 18 March 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link
vampire & buffy on the left much more fearsome imo
― drash, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 21:10 (nine years ago) link
and fierce
― drash, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 21:13 (nine years ago) link