Photojournalism Defined

[Curtis Cunningham]

What is your definition of photojournalism? Does your answer change if you apply it to wedding photography?

[DierkHaasis]

Journalism = topical and current with a broad interest

Wedding = current with a narrow interest

Both kinds overlap on several levels, the most obvious being the formal, they are both mostly reportage. Another overlap can occur with politicians, royalties, famous people and celebrities.

Clearly distinguishing both - beside the difference in interest - is the Art Factor; you have much more leeway in creating effects, special compositions etc. with wedding photography [usually it is mandatory].

[David_Buzzard]

I've never been that comfortable with the photo-journalism tag when applied to weddings. As soon as you ask someone to pose in front of the church, it stops being photo-journalism. I just say I work in a more candid way than most photographers.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

[EricC]

I agree with David on this one. When we were asked if we did "PJ Style" wedding photography I would explain what it meant to 'doccument' a wedding as compared to creating wedding images. 99.9% of the brides that would ask for this got the idea from some fool filled rag like the KNOT. If ever there was a more brain eroding rag I happily missed it. That rag isn't suitable for wrapping dead fish let alone guiding people planning a wedding.

Rant over.

Eric

[billsstills]

While I do the formal work setting up all the group shots and I know what the money shots are my second shooter (who is now a permanent partner in my wedding work)... my second shooter is running around shooting candidly "photojournalistic" style.

Bill.

[Noel_Carboni]

The things that occured to me when thinking about your post are:

With photojournalism you need to be ready for anything.

With wedding work it seems to me you need to be knowledgeable about what happens at weddings and what brides/grooms/families will buy.

One is a generalization of photography skills while the other is more a specialization into a niche. They seem rather at opposite ends of the spectrum to me. Cameras may be involved in both, though indeed very possibly different models.

Can't say which would be harder to do... It does seem that a great deal of experience and willingness to work hard helps with both. Both also take a certain amount of talent and even luck, and a person good at one might not be good at the other.

-Noel

[David_Buzzard]

Being both an experienced photojournalist and wedding photographer, wedding photographers work harder than any kind of photographer out there. An six or eight hour wedding job is one of the most exhausting things you can do, and you're shooting non-stop the whole time. Photojournalism has it's own stresses, but more often than not it's getting to where you're going to shoot, or dealing with the mental stress of the situation.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

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