Flash Back

From staged to candid and back-wedding photography has come a full circle

- Vinay Aravind

HAVE you seen your parents’ wedding photos? If you haven’t, see if you can get your hands on them and have a look. Okay, now that you’re done, I’m going to guess a few things about them. 

Most of the indoor pictures will be lit by direct flash. A large proportion of them would have the couple and the guests posing stiffly, rictus smiles all around, or alternatively, with funereal grimness. There will be many pictures of the guests eating their meals, timed perfectly to capture their mouths open. All of it, of course, imbued with the undeniable charm and character of film photography.  

Indian wedding photographs in the 20th century, at least among those wealthy enough to have had their weddings photographed, are a document of their time and broadly exhibited the common style I described above. It’s our version of what is referred to abroad as ‘traditional’ wedding photography, with an emphasis on more formal, posed photos but executed, most of the time, with little attention to finesse or aesthetic virtue. Of course, there were exceptions—but the general style and approach were on these lines. This remained the case right up until the latter part of the 2000s, around when digital photography started becoming mainstream. This is where I introduce myself.