They say that change is constant. That's a true statement for everything in life and that includes wedding photography. Recently, I sat down to discuss with my friend and brother (who is also a wedding photographer) about how things have changed drastically and not exactly for the better. I do not know if this is happening anywhere else in the world, but in Nigeria, the wedding industry has taken such a new form that we can't explain it anymore.
When I started to delve into wedding photography in 2021/2022, wedding events and how we photographed them were simple and less complicated. We cared more about the memories we were capturing and preserving for the couple(s) but that's not the case anymore. These days, what's in vogue is "virality". Every wedding, there's this push for the event to go viral and this has led to what has been termed "the contentification of wedding events". Right now, weddings feel like a heavily produced movie and the couples are actors. I miss the spontaneity, the random drama that unfolds, the candid moments, etc. Everything is super planned these days and I truly wonder if these are tangible memories the couple(s) can look back on and smile later.
The contentification of weddings gave birth to wedding content creators. Now, this is where I have the most issues with because now I do not only have videographers to contend with for space, I have to confront several other creatives who in their right are doing their job albeit causing a bit of trouble for us. These days they are even more important than photographers and videographers because their output is almost instant. Well, I hope in due time we are able to synergize and that wedding coverages go back to being more about memories than virality.
With that being said, for my entry for the #monomad challenge, I'll be sharing photos of the bride from a recent wedding I photographed. It's one of my favourite weddings this year and although, it had some of the issues I explained earlier, the overall experience of the wedding made it worthwhile for me.
Gold made such an amazing bride. Her energy was 100 percent from start to finish. It showed that she really looked forward to her wedding and she enjoyed herself. Inasmuch as we had a lot of planned production scenes, they were so many random/spontaneous moments on the day that made it worthwhile to me. There's only one other wedding event this year that has given me the same kind of energy. I look forward to sharing them with you, but until then, let me know in the comments section what you think about these photos.