EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHER OR PHOTOJOURNALIST?
the art of wedding photography
by Andrea Cittadini
Very often, during the first meeting with a couple, I am asked what kind of photography they prefer, reportagisitic or editorial.
It is an important question with a non-obvious answer.
According to some well-known international editors, the definitions between editorial and reportage photographer are as follows:
- An editorial photographer aims to tell an event in its entirety through highly curated photographs. These shots may receive a little editing that does not affect their authenticity.
- A reportage photographer aims to tell an event as it happens, without altering the scene or changing key elements such as light.
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
I’m an Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
By these definitions I consider myself an editorial photographer who madly loves the basic principle of reportage.
I have the sensibility to be able to capture an event without altering its essence. At the same time I am able to imagine and make breathtaking images that tell the beauty of the bride and groom or the majesty of the location. I can use all the means I have at my disposal, including flashes, artificial lights or artistic lenses.
In fact I’m the Photographer of the Year of Wedding Photojoutnalist Association. I’m also the Photographer of Quarter for Masters of Italian Wedding photography which are purely reportage or artistic associations.
I am a photographer accustomed to living and working in the rigor of high-fashion commercial photography but, at the same time, I know how to capture the true soul of my subjects with extremely clean but emotional photographs.
Emilio Tini, a high fashion photographer whom I had the privilege of meeting and with whom I still work this way speaks of me:
Andrea is a photographer with extraordinary human and artistic sensitivity and has a rare sense of “storytelling in a single frame.” Andrea feels with his stomach and heart and sees things on set that most photographers don’t see, and he captures it expertly.
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
A sapient mix of reportage and art photography
Wedding photography lends itself well to both genres and often blends them together.
In fact, during a wedding, the photographer is called upon to recount the events in their authenticity in order to leave an authentic memory for the bride and groom. He works in this case as a photojournalist.
At the same time, in some specific moments such as, for example, the couple’s session or the first dance, the wedding photographer is free to interpret the couple and the situation in his or her own taste and style. In this last case he fully plays the role of an editorial photographer.
As I always tell every couple, very often the figure of the wedding photographer is underestimated and debased by colleagues. However, if well lived, the wedding photographer is among the most challenging of all existing figures.
We must be photojournalists and editorial photographers, still life photographers and lighting experts. We also have a great deal of human knowledge, which translates into a sensitivity in human relationships that goes beyond the job strictly understood. As wedding photographers, we need to know how to “know” our couples, how to understand and interpret them at a glance.
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
Editorial photographer or photojournalist?
Wedding photographer it is not a job for many, and I feel proudly among those who have the artistic and human sensitivity to perform it to the top.
