The Documentary Photographer

This is an interesting set of images for me personally for several reason. These will become clear as you read the commentary with each photograph.

I've said before that parents are often the forgotten people on their childrens' wedding days. Despite the unfortunate positioning of the clothes line, I love this picture. (c) Roger Overall 2010

There was a strong smell of onions in the air. Hardly surprising when the groom had reversed a car over his father's freshly harvested onion crop. Here they survey the damage. A moment they'll both look back on with great humour in years to come. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A special photograph for so many reasons. It shows a small crisis involving some lost paperwork. It turned up in time, but this captures a little of the anxious moments. This is also a special photograph for a very personal reason. The priest you see here was at my father-in-law's side when he passed away and was of infinite comfort to my wife's family. He is also the man who christened my daughter. (c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

So you already know I'm the emotional sort and that I love my daughter (see previous post), so you imagine that I'm going to struggle a smidge on her wedding day. There is so much story here in the father of the bride's face as he watches the final preparations before he walks his daughter own the aisle. I see pride and I see love. (c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

The first wedding of a new season is always special.

By the time it comes round, my batteries are recharged and I’m keen to get going again. At the same time, there’s always a little anxiety. Will I be able to produce the goods? The classical guys have it easier. They get to call the shots. They are in control. Documentary wedding photographers have to roll with the dice others are throwing. It can be a bit of a roller-coaster ride. You’re never sure what’s going to happen, how the light will be and (most nerve-racking of all) whether you’ll see a photograph before it happens, or react in time to something unexpected.

Therese and Craig’s wedding was a fantastic way to start the 2010 season a few weeks ago. Wonderful couple, warm guests, lots going on. I loved every moment.

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

(c) Roger Overall 2010

A lot of people think that documentary photography is about luck. Sure, sometimes luck plays a part, though as the saying goes: it often favours the prepared.

Anyway, here’s a photograph that looks lucky. In fact it wasn’t. It was anticipated.

(c) Roger Overall 2010

I took it at a wedding last weekend, while waiting for the bride to arrive.

The flower girl and pageboy were running in and out of the church – you’ve gotta do something to stave off boredom, right? I reckoned that if I could get somebody, preferably the bride with her dad, on the right of the frame and either of the children on the left we’d have an interesting photograph.

In Ireland, guests have a relaxed approach to turning up at the wedding ceremony. I’ve seen people, crowds of them, arrive half an hour late. Usually, things work out OK. Brides are, as is their prerogative, sometimes even later, which balances things out. So while I was anticipating the bride, four guests appeared instead.

Now all I needed was one of the children and I was in business.

Easy enough you’d think, but I was shooting with a Canon 5D II, which has the response of tortoise – a very lazy tortoise on Valium at that. I practically had to press the shutter release while the child was still in the building. I was a little late, as the girl’s bouquet is just nudging out of the frame. Nevertheless, her stance is good and I like the interaction between the outermost guests on the right.

Lucky? Hah!

Well, as you can see from the photograph below, things got totally out of hand at the St Patrick’s Day parade here in Cork earlier.

Moments later, he was gone. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A massive crocodile escaped from the secret zoology labs at UCC and went on the rampage, encouraged by one of Cork’s traffic wardens – that’s her with the sword. Police fired tear gas, but to no avail.

This press photographer tried to get a close up photograph using a wide-angle lens and a flash gun.

He was eaten.

I’ll spare you the photograph of that.

…

OK, OK … It didn’t happen.

If truth be told, the secret giant UCC reptiles almost never escape.

There is, though, a serious point to this. In fact, there are two.

1) A documentary photographer is constantly editing reality. This can be done to show the subject in a benign light, or in a negative one. The photograph above shows by far the most original float in the parade. It was fabulous. But it never set off in pursuit of the photographer. He simply turned away at the right moment to give me this shot. The smoke is from the float itself – a special effect. There’s a lesson here. You have to be careful how you photograph things – people just might believe what they think they’re seeing.

2) The second point is this: photographs are not worth a thousand words. Often, photographs are incomprehensible without a caption. You need to understand the context to fully appreciate many documentary pictures. Not always, sure, but you often have to supply words to give the viewer the complete picture – if you’ll forgive the pun. Imagine if you’d only seen the photograph above without any explanation. You’d have no idea what was happening.

And you’d never know about UCC’s covert reptile programme.

Back from Dublin, where I spent two days meeting with advertising and marketing agencies. It was a trip worthy of a blog post of its own. I’ll get round to that, just not today.

Today, I’m feeling in a wedding mood.

Spring must be in the air or something – or at least not too far away.

Here are some personal favourites from the last wedding I photographed in 2009. I remember it well. It hosed down. I got wet. Usual stuff. Fun couple to make up for it, though.

The last day of 2009 brought a nice surprise.

While shopping for a suit, I found a copy of the January 2010 issue of Professional Photographer magazine with the results of its 2009 awards. I knew I’d been shortlisted in the Social Reportage/Wedding category, but didn’t know what had come of it. Turns out my entry, which was reproduced in the magazine, was commended. That’s jury speak for “Very Good, But Not Quite Good Enough”.

Still, better than a kick in the teeth, no?

Commended in the 2009 "Professional Photographer" magazine awards. (c) Roger Overall 2009

I should also point out that the results were recently announced for the European Photographer of the Year Awards.

I entered two categories … [drum roll] … and didn’t make a mark in either.

The next awards to be announced that are relevant to me are the National Photographic Awards here in Ireland. That’s not until the end of February, though.

A whole new year starts tomorrow, an unwritten slate upon which we can write a better life.

I’m about to come over all philosophical. Just a little warning. You can bail now, by going here: Exit This Post.

For those of you still here, the point I want to make is this: while it’s great to be looking ahead with ambitions, we can only stand tomorrow on the foundations we built in the past. If the foundations are feeble, the future will likely be equally weak. So the best way to sort out the future is to sort out the present.

Nothing new in any of that, but for me personally it’s become a guiding light for me in the past 12 months.

It’s been very liberating.

And scary. Because, you know, I’m solely responsible for where I am. I can’t blame anyone else. It’s all me. (And between the two of us: he can be a bit of a dunce at times).

There is an upside. A biggie. If it’s all me, then I have the power to change things. I can affect an outcome, give direction to a situation, meet a challenge and turn it into an opportunity.

I’m starting to think that too few photographers realize this.

For instance, go to any wedding fair here in Cork and you will hear constant bitching from some of the exhibiting photographers about how many other photographers have stands. The worst offenders are three photographers from the same company who complain the loudest, oblivious to the inflationary aspect of their own number.

It’s crazy. The more photographers in the hall, the better. How much easier is it to stand out if there are lots of people offering the same service? If you are truly different and have defined your USPs, you will rise above everyone. It will be plain to see.

What is really going on is that the photographers who complain the loudest haven’t in the past made the decisions that would have made them unique to the market today.

In the last 12 months, I’ve come to understand, through personal insight but also through the generous input of others, what I’m good at and what I truly love doing.

My utter conviction of the value of documentary photography shapes everything I do in the business now.

That is what I have taken from 2009, and it will help me going forward in 2010.

You won’t be surprise then that the last picture on this blog this year is a documentary one.

It’s a photograph of my two greatest sources of inspiration. I am very lucky to have them both in my life. I love them dearly. My wife and my daughter.

Have a great 2010, everyone.

My daughter is one of the funniest people I know. A couple of nights ago, she almost made us wet ourselves with a new look she had developed. It came out of nothing as we were all watching TV together. (c) Roger Overall 2009

I have a problem. I recognize that.

[Deep breath]

I can’t get enough of reflections and splits in my photographs.

There, I’ve said it.

[Oh, that feels so much better to get that out. Cathartic]

You’ll see how bad things are in this selection of photographs from a wedding this summer. Fortunately, Niamh and James are a very understanding couple.

I am seeking help.