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| © Jose Villa |
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Welcome to our second-annual roundup of the best wedding photographers in the world.
There are more wedding photographers offering services to brides and grooms than ever before. Wedding shooters are asking for -- and getting -- bigger fees than ever before. Indeed, the fastest growing cost of weddings is the photography, which has shot up more than 100 percent since 1999. Perhaps that's only appropriate, since a great wedding photographer must be masterful at shooting architecture, still lifes, and, of course, people -- all the while dealing calmly with anxious brides, grooms, and parents.
Here we offer our second-annual roundup of the best wedding photographers in the world. This year we cast our net wider and farther by asking for nominations from dozens of experts, including photographers, wedding planners, and bridal magazine editors. From those nominations, the editors of American Photo chose finalists that, in our opinion, represent the state of the art in wedding photography. Some of these photographers specialize in "wedding photojournalism," while others focus on fine-art and fashion styles.
We've also added new features to this year's look at wedding photography. For brides, there's a guide to picking the right photographer. For photographers, there's a tip-sheet on creating Website that get noticed. And to top it off, we've included an interview with Denis Reggie, one of the world's best-known celebrity wedding photographers.
JOSE VILLA
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Website: josevillaphoto.com
Jose Villa has always shot film and resolutely says he always will, a stance that sets this Santa Barbara, California-based photographer apart from his competitors. "There's probably only one out of 100 photographers who shoot film," he says. Being different has turned out to be a good marketing move for Villa. Brides who want pictures with the particular look of film have begun turning to him for images that are saturated with vivid color and formally composed. While digital photographers may shoot thousands of photos at one wedding, Villa never shoots more than 800, due to the production costs of film. The restraint forces him to think carefully about his shots. "I compose my images, rather than just snapping away," he says. "Staging" shots may have a negative connotation, but Villa embraces the aesthetic; his goal, he says, is not to "cover" weddings like a photojournalist but to create the kind of elaborately produced images that appear in bridal magazines. "Women say, 'I want to look like that,'" Villa explains. "So when they look at my work, it has that [same] lifestyle feel to it." It's no surprise, then, that Villa's photography has been featured in those same bridal magazines, including The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, and In Style Weddings.
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| © Ben Chrisman |
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BEN CHRISMAN
Location: San Francisco
Website: benchrisman.com
Ben Chrisman's offbeat style has attracted a clientele that is exactly like him -- young, successful, and a "little odd," he says. Early in his photographic career, Chrisman aspired to be a war photographer. That idea never worked out, and he grudgingly began thinking about shooting weddings. "I got into wedding photography not liking wedding photographers, thinking they were pretty lame," he says. "So I decided to do the opposite of everything they did. I only shoot what I would want to see myself." His dedication to photographing nuptials with a witty eye for detail (a groom taking a smoke break in a parking lot while his decked-out bride sits on a parking barrier) has attracted a steady stream of "charismatic, energetic" clients from all over the United States. "Sometimes I have to convince my clients to do the traditional portraits because I know their parents would get mad at me if I didn't take those shots," he says. Often, his connection with a bride and groom outlasts the wedding day. One couple he photographed ended up inviting him to their home for Thanksgiving years later. "I get to meet really interesting people on the happiest day of their lives," he says. "And they look fantastic."
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| © Jim Garner |
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JIM GARNER
Location: Seattle
Website: jgarnerphoto.com
When Jim Garner was in art school, he had a telling exchange with a professor. "I asked him, 'What sort of film would you use to shoot a wedding?' And the teacher said, 'Well, why would you want to shoot a wedding?'" Garner remembers. "I was shunned for wanting to be a wedding photographer." It's a story many successful wedding photographers can identify with. Garner eventually became a commercial photographer at a Seattle dotcom, shooting weddings on the side. He went out on his own full-time in 1999, along with his wife, Katarina, who manages the wedding-photography business. Almost a decade later, Garner has carved out a niche for himself in Seattle: He's known for his album packages, which are grouped by "story" rather than individual shots. For example, there might be a series of photos that document "the champagne story," which transitions into "the limousine story," "the arrival," and so on. He captures these moments by beseeching his clients to slow down. "Your wedding day is going to be a whirlwind, how about we just have some fun?" he says. "Let's have champagne at the bar. Everyone is so caught off guard that they relax into it. I set the scene and the moments unfold like you can't believe." His approach has paid off, and Garner won WPPI awards in 2007 and 2008 for Best Album. Garner's success has allowed him and his wife to cater to a higher-end bride. But, as Katarina is quick to point out, every bride receives high-end quality. "It can be the simplest location or the simplest couple, and you can still capture that art," she says. "Rain or shine," Garner adds. After all, it is Seattle.
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| © Karen Wise |
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KAREN WISE
Location: New York City
Website: karenwise.com
For Karen Wise, there was little possibility of falling victim to wedding photography convention; before her career informally began with a friend's wedding, she had only been to one in her entire life. "At the time, I really had no idea about the traditional wedding rituals," she says of her first assignment. "The first dance, the cake cutting, and all that. I think not knowing the conventions helped me to take interesting photos. It made my shooting very photojournalistic since I was discovering a lot of wedding traditions as I shot." She was armed, however, with a fine-art degree and extensive experience photographing food and still life, which came in handy in her matrimonial endeavors. "I found I had to take all of these skills and speed them up in order to capture everything I wanted to get," she says. "I found that to be exhilarating." Her colorful, detail-oriented style has attracted numerous clients in the New York area, where she is based; but she has shot weddings as far away as India, including one in which a baby elephant was given as a wedding gift, popular musician Abida Parveen performed in the garden from Monsoon Wedding, decor was coordinated with guests' outfits, and famed shoe-designer Christian Louboutin hand-delivered the footwear. "A photographer couldn't ask for a more inspiring setting in which to create beautiful photographs," Wise says. "Everywhere you looked was beautiful and photogenic." But she once again had to learn on her feet about traditions she was unfamiliar with: those of a full-blown Indian nuptial extravaganza.
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| © Elizabeth Messina |
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ELIZABETH MESSINA
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Website: elizabethmessina.com
Nine years ago, Elizabeth Messina did a favor for a friend and agreed to photograph her wedding. At the time she had no idea the experience would resonate so deeply with her. Messina had spent three years after college shooting editorial work, but the sentimental nature of the wedding struck her. "I feel as though it brought two sides of my personality together," she says. Despite the intense connection, Messina didn't pursue wedding photography right away; instead, jobs came to her. At one point she ran into a woman who was looking for a wedding photographer. Messina showed her the photos from her friend's wedding and the woman booked her on the spot. After two years of sporadic wedding work, Messina decided to put all her energy into a full-time wedding business. She has since cultivated a consistent look, characterized by its romantic, tinged-with-age aesthetic: red velvet shoes haloed by soft focus or a gauzy corset bathed in an ethereal light. And now Messina's wedding photography has brought her back to editorial work, as her images are regularly featured in magazines such as In Style, Town & Country, and Elegant Bride, which are drawn to her lifestyle aesthetic. Frequently she even takes those exclusive celebrity-wedding photos for US Weekly. Messina believes there are new opportunities for wedding photographers, and considering that she's been featured in numerous publications, as well as on Oprah and The Fine Living Network, she just might be right.
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